Part the Clouds
by G.O.T. Nick
Summary: No one ever said Duelist Academy was boring, but then again, boredom can be nice. At the very least, it's safe. In a place where hundreds of duelists with very strange behaviors gather, hilarity, adventure, and all that good stuff are bound to ensue.
1. Vows

Welcome, one and all, to my first DA fic! For those of you who may be unfamiliar with me, I am G.O.T. Nick, but since no one wants to use four capitals and three periods in a name (in case they care about getting it right, which they shouldn't), you can call me Nick. I started writing dueling stories about three and a half years ago, so I'm definitely not new to the field. My work is generally laden with humor, as I find it very difficult to write something serious for a long period of time and enjoy it. This story is meant to be a fun work for me, although I've put quite a bit of planning and preparation into it, so it should turn out to be a fun, easy read for everyone out there. This is a somewhat alternate universe fic. In other words, generally the original cast of GX will not appear or possibly even be mentioned.

In any case, I've written the story for my enjoyment, but I've posted it on this web site in the hopes that I can grant that to others as well. So I hope you enjoy reading the following story.

**Parting the Clouds  
****Chapter One: Vows**

Forty years ago, passersby had wondered why in the world a large sporting complex was required for teenagers to play a card game. Then again, forty years ago, those that heard the news of the opening of a school focused on teaching teenagers how to play a card game had thought that Seto Kaiba was crazy. The owners of the stadium had been hesitant when the tycoon had made the proposal to use their facility for such a purpose…until they saw his financial offering. They had agreed, and the rest was history: for forty years, they had hosted bi-annual entrance exams to Kaiba's Duelist Academy, which itself was located on a small tropical island quite a distance from the coast. The publicity these events created, and certainly the deal with Kaiba Corps. to allow for hosting the event every six months, had been highly beneficial to the arena's owners.

Nowadays, passersby would glance at the crowds of teenagers, some with Duel Disks strapped onto their left arms and every single one carrying a deck of Duel Monsters cards, and say to themselves, "Oh, I guess it's that time of year again," before walking off as if nothing had happened. Well, except for the one time an elderly man shouted, "You kids get off my lawn!" but that's beside the point.

In any case, at the present time, a fifteen-year-old boy with short, dark brown hair was standing in front of a table placed just outside the stadium, impatiently waiting to be allowed entrance. The woman at the table, dressed in an orange blazer in the model of those worn by all students and staff of the central Duelist Academy, was scribbling on a form in pen as she asked him questions.

"Do you have any special medical needs that the school should be informed of? Allergies, chronic diseases, diabetes…"

"No," he said, hoping to end the questions as quickly as he could.

"Are there any questions you have in regards to the academy's curriculum, housing, provision of food and-"

"No."

"Have you completed all three years of junior high school?"

"Yes."

"Have you ever kissed a girl?"

"…" he paused, staring at her calm, smiling face. "That has nothing to do with letting me in, does it?"

"No," she said, looking back down at the form on the table and signing it to prove it official. "You can go in now. A bunch of students are waiting in the first hall already. You should be allowed to take the written test within half an hour. You will have ninety minutes to complete all portions of the test, following which you will be ushered into the main area of the stadium. There you will have to wait until you are called for the dueling test. Your admission and ranking at the academy will be determined by-" she stopped when she realized he was gone, and the next person in line had already stepped up. She frowned, and muttered to herself as she placed the young man's form on a stack of several other forms while reaching for a blank one. "Those guys at the training course were right. Not a single one has stayed to hear all the details…I wonder how they knew..." She looked up at the next potential student, "Name please?"

* * *

Within the first room of the stadium, many teenagers were standing or sitting, and talking with each other. Meanwhile, the brown-haired teen was attempting to defy the physical limits of his body so that he could use his arms a certain way. His fingers scratched against the fabric of the green jacket along his back, attempting and failing to quell the source of the itch at the very middle of his back, right between the shoulder blades. "Damn it…" he muttered under his breath, "I'm just glad this doesn't happen too often. If I had to put up with this every day, I'd go insane…"

"Need some help?" He looked down towards the source of the voice, and saw a girl, about four inches shorter than himself with a raven-black ponytail looking up at him with bright brown eyes and a friendly smile.

"Help?" he questioned, slowly processing the somewhat obscure conversation starter. "With what?"

"Your itch," she replied, pointing up at his elbows, which were jutting out due to his efforts to bend his arms into a position where his fingers could reach the small of his back. "You look like you're having trouble getting at it."

There was a momentary silence as he simply stared at her. Eventually, he processed what he was going to say, and let it out, "Let me get this straight. You're…what, fifteen, right?" She nodded in affirmation, before he continued, "And you're asking me, a teenaged, hormonally-driven male, if you can rub my back?" She nodded again. "And you see nothing wrong in this?"

She quirked an eyebrow and grinned slightly in amusement at him. "Oh, I get it," she said, "you've got that whole 'personal space' thing going. Okay, I won't bother you about it."

"It's not a 'thing'," he countered, eyes narrowing, "a lot of people care about personal space. Particularly around people they've never met before. Particularly when those people ask to touch them before they even introduce themselves."

She blinked at him, then suddenly started laughing gleefully. Her laughter continued for several seconds, and all the while he and several people immediately surrounding them stared at her in confusion. By the time she stopped, said immediately surrounding people were attempting to not be immediately surrounding them. She grinned, and placed a hand on his shoulder, "You're funny! I like you!"

A bead of sweat appeared on his head as he glanced at the hand on his shoulder. "You apparently missed everything I just said."

Still grinning, she took a breath and removed the hand from his shoulder before extending it out to him, "Yeah, right, sorry. Guess I should pay more attention to stuff like that…anyways, my name's Izumi Yuusha, since you seem so intent on introductions being made."

"I never said I wanted to really know you, I just…" he sighed, cutting himself off, and accepted the handshake, "I give up. I'm Takashi Kasei." He was caught off guard when after the second jerk of their hands, she lunged towards him and grabbed him around his midsection in a powerful hug.

"Yay!" she squealed, squeezing him about the abdomen happily, "I made a new friend!"

"Izumi…" he gasped out, having trouble breathing, "those are my lungs…I kinda need them…"

Izumi sighed, and released her grip, allowing Takashi to breathe normally again. "Sheesh, some people and their personal space. The way you act around me, it makes me think you've never kissed a girl before or something."

Takashi's eye twitched in response. "Why is it that everybody wants to know that of me today?"

"So does that mean you haven't?"

"That's not the point!"

* * *

Professor Kamin Eishi, head of the Osiris Red dorm at Duelist Academy, smirked as a gray, metal cannon with various visible gears about its structure appeared in front of him. "Now that Ancient Gear Cannon (500/500) has been special summoned by Magnet Circle LV2's effect," he stated, "I can activate Reckless Summoning of Hell from my hand to summon the other two copies from my deck." An additional pair of cannons appeared flanking the initial one, all three now pointing at the professor's opponent. "Normally, my card lets you summon copies of a monster on your field from your deck. However, because this is the first turn of the duel, you don't get that benefit." He plucked two of the Cannon cards off his Duel Disk and slid them into his graveyard, before replacing them with a single card from his hand. "I sacrifice two Ancient Gear Cannons to summon Ancient Gear Golem (3000/3000)!" With this declaration, an immense humanoid machine appeared on the field, its immense form overshadowing the entire arena. "I then sacrifice the remaining Ancient Gear Cannon to deal you five hundred points of damage with its effect." The Cannon exploded, launching an orange orb of energy at the applicant that made him jerk slightly (Applicant LP: 3500).

At the moment, Kamin was staring down a potential male student to the academy, who looked thoroughly unimpressed by the large Golem. Once he had determined from Kamin's stance that the professor's turn was over, he smirked and drew from his deck. "You'll regret bringing such a disgraceful and ugly creature to face me. Such a straightforward, bulky strategy poses no threat to as elegant a duelist as myself. I'll smash down your machine in this turn!"

As the student executed his move, three men looked down at the area while making notes on the computers in front of them. The middle man was quite elderly, with a wrinkled forehead and gray hair that was only visible on the sides and back of his head save for the goatee that jutted from his chin. He was wearing a purple coat in the style of the Duelist Academy uniforms, and was flanked by the heads of Ra Yellow and Obelisk Blue dorms. On his right, the thirty-something Blue head had short black hair emphasized by the contrasting white of his eyes. On the other side, the Ra Yellow head, in his upper-middle twenties, had a friendly face, green eyes, and black hair that was pulled back in a bushy ponytail. He frowned as he watched the duel. "Leave it to Kamin to put so much pressure on a potential student in the first turn," he huffed.

The head of Obelisk Blue smirked. "You're being too lenient, Tsura," he said, "just as you were in your judgment of that last girl's performance."

"I still say she should have gone into Ra Yellow," Tsura stated, apparently upset over a recent argument that he had lost. "She used a strategy known to be very difficult in execution to great effect."

The older man chuckled at Tsura, and spoke up. "Yes, Professor Niya, but you forget that she made several poor decisions through the course of the duel. If in the end she had not made that lucky draw, she would have certainly lost in the next turn. Do not forget, new head of Ra Yellow, that we are not simply judging what dorm these young ones will be placed in. We are also judging whether they deserve entrance into the academy at _all_. Although the academy has opened its doors a little wider over the years, our maximum capacity still remains at a mere five hundred students across three full years. As Professor Jougo stated, you are far too lenient."

Tsura snorted, and turned to look back at the duel. "You've given me the lecture already, Principal Akai."

The principal blinked at this statement. "Oh, have I? How silly of me…I must be getting senile…"

"You know darn well you aren't senile," Professor Shin Jougo countered, "don't try to make him feel bad about it."

Principal Hiroshi Akai of Duelist Academy chuckled. "When sixty-nine years old you reach," he said, "attempt to garner the sympathy of others you shall." The two professors looked at him in confusion, and he sighed in frustration. "Kids today…" he muttered to himself, "too young to get the pop culture references…"

* * *

"So I assume you're here for the entrance exam too?" Izumi, now sitting beside Takashi, questioned.

Takashi sighed. "No," he stated, "I'm here to speak with girls who don't know when they need to stop asking questions."

Izumi blinked. "Really? What girls do you mean?" Takashi sighed again, and bowed his head in frustration. However, at that moment he noticed a commotion amongst the other students, who were now trying to crowd into the testing room.

"Well, guess they're letting us in," he said, a little too eagerly, and jumped up to head to the room.

"Wait a second!" Izumi exclaimed, scrambling to her feet. Takashi sighed, and stood still, hoping the girl would say her piece and just leave him alone. He turned to look at her, and was somewhat surprised at the suddenly determined look reflected in her brown eyes. "Takashi, I may not know you really well yet, but I know that to be a good duelist, it's always helpful to have friends to support you in achieving your goals, and I…" Izumi unexpectedly faltered momentarily, and had to pause before getting the next few words out. "…I don't know anyone who's going to the academy…so…" She shook her head slightly, and regained that determined look from before and thrust her hand out to him, "So let's make a promise right here! Let's promise that we'll both pass this exam and make it into the academy!"

Takashi stared in a mild form of bewilderment at the girl, and as he looked at her, it seemed that he was thinking about something. But eventually, he smiled slightly at her, and accepted the hand for the second time that day. This time, she didn't hug him immediately afterwards. "Okay," he agreed, "but just to let you know, I'll hold you to that promise." The smile that she returned to him was enough to know she wasn't too worried about that.

* * *

Kamin smirked over at Tsura, diverting his attention from where Jougo had just finished dueling a student. "An impressive finish," he commented, "but I believe even you have to agree that the student belongs under me, Tsura." The Ra Yellow head simply nodded. His first day as a grader for such tests was not going over abnormally well. He had butted heads with the other teachers and Principal Akai several times already, and they hadn't even finished grading half of the entrants. It had certainly been a learning experience.

Hiroshi cleared his throat and began to stand up as Jougo ascended the stairs to join the other graders. "Well then," the principal stated, "I suppose it's my turn-"

"Get back to your seat, Principal Akai," Jougo countered before the older man could finish. Hiroshi made as if to protest, but the head of Obelisk Blue silenced him with a look.

Hiroshi pouted as he sank back into his chair. "Hmph. They make it seem like old people don't like to have fun once in a while too."

* * *

Takashi had almost nodded off by the time the instructor told the gathered entrants to begin their written tests. He hated standardized testing instructions. They were always the same…use this pencil and not that pencil, open the packet this way and not that way, answer the questions in this format… But in any case, the test had begun, so he had something to focus on. Izumi had sat down several rows down from him, and he was currently surrounded on either side by some large, dull-looking guys. He opened the packet in front of him, and looked at the first question.

_1) In the space below, list at least five of the sub-types a monster card can be._

Takashi blinked, and double-checked what the question read. _'No…'_ he thought to himself, _'do they actually expect someone to get that one wrong? Heck, most people could answer that by remembering some of the cards in their DECKS!'_ Nonetheless, he scribbled out: "Warriors, Machines, Dragons, Spellcasters, Demons, Angels." He ran out of room after that, but he figured that because the question said "at least," he might get some bonus points for putting more than five down. If he would need them…_ 'Really, what are they think-'_

"Psst…" he heard one of the guys surrounding him hiss, then whisper, "What's the answer to number one?" Takashi sighed, and let his head hit the desk.

* * *

Tsura sighed sadly as he placed a card on his Duel Disk. "You put up a good effort, and nearly defeated me. However, with three Harpie Ladies (1300/1400) on the field, my Harpie's Pet Baby Dragon (2400/1200) has the ability to destroy one card on the field per turn. Therefore, your facedown monster and last defense are gone!" The childish, but still larger-than-man-size dragon in front of him squawked and then burped, sending out a blast of flame that destroyed the horizontal card. "The combined attack of my monsters (5300) is more than enough to bring your life points to zero, so this duel is over. Harpie's Pet Baby Dragon, attack directly!" He eyes softened after making the command, as his dragon let loose another flaming belch. It broke his heart to personally turn away a student, but it was his duty as one of the testers. Suddenly his eyes widened in shock as the entrant slammed a card from their hand into their Duel Disk, and the image of a familiar pink-bordered card appeared. "A trap? But how…?" His eyes widened in recognition when his opponent held up a card and showed it to him.

"The card you destroyed with your Baby Dragon's effect was Makyura the Destructor, and during the turn he's sent to the graveyard I can activate traps from my hand. That means my Magic Cylinder is going to reflect your attack right back at your life points. And last I checked, twenty-four hundred is greater than six hundred."

The blast of flame struck Tsura in his face, knocking him on his back. He sat up grinning, even as his life points trickled down to nothing, and said, "Congratulations on your victory. Welcome to Duelist Academy!"

* * *

Takashi sighed, finishing up the historical section of the test. _'Man, I guess they think that if you know more about successful duelists, you'll know more strategies and be more successful yourself. Still, that was annoying.'_ He turned the page of the test packet, and blinked. _'What the…"Theoretical Situation Section"…and the only instructions are "find a way to win the game in one turn in each of the following situations"…huh, I wonder who came up with this idea…?'_ A snore from the student next to him kept his thoughts from wandering too far, and, annoyed, he set himself back to the task at hand.

* * *

Ninety minutes after the test had begun, it ended, in an equally boring manner. The fifty-some-odd students were allowed entrance at last into the arena area of the stadium, where various students were still testing from the previous group. Takashi and Izumi met up in the bleachers, the latter looking and sounding very confident in herself. "Ha! That was easy!" she cheered, dancing on top of her chair, occasionally coming very close to falling but always managing to catch herself. "Man, can you believe some of the questions that were on that test? I bet I got a perfect score!" Suddenly, she paused, and sat down. "Although…that last section was hard. Way harder than the history section. I couldn't even figure out that one puzzle at all. There's just not enough stuff available to you to power up your monsters to beat something as powerful as a Master of Oz, even after you pick up Axe of Despair with Magic Shard Excavation."

"That's because you don't pick up Axe of Despair," Takashi said simply, leaning back in his chair.

Izumi blinked at him. "Say what?"

"You pick up Clash of the Titans," he continued, "which lets you add any level five or higher monster from your deck or graveyard to your hand if your opponent has such a monster on their field. Then you sacrifice all three of your monsters to summon Gilford the Lightning, whose effect destroys Master of Oz and lets you attack directly."

Izumi blinked again. "How do you know Gilford the Lightning's in your deck, though?"

"You obviously didn't pay attention to the monsters on the field," Takashi replied with a smirk.

* * *

Tsura sighed, preparing himself to run down the stairs and duel again. He, Kamin, and Jougo had been the only three to duel students thus far, which made the process of grading rather difficult. Each time a duel ended, the instructor who had dueled the entrant had to run up the stairs to discuss the student's placement with the other three judges, which had to be done quickly so that the next teacher could race down and duel the next potential student. Luckily for him this time, he would not have to rush downstairs, as he and the others had little to argue about after Kamin returned from his duel.

"It is my opinion," Hiroshi stated from his seat, "that that was the most impressive display of skill that we have seen today. I nominate the student to be placed in Ra Yellow."

Tsura grinned, and nodded enthusiastically in agreement, happy to have such a talented student placed under him. After assuring that Kamin and Jougo had no objections, he adjusted his Duel Disk and fitted it with a new test deck before he asked, "Who is the next student?"

* * *

"Izumi Yuusha," Hiroshi's voice rang over the speakers in the stadium, "please report to the arena to take the dueling portion of the test."

Izumi grinned from ear to ear, and jumped out of her seat. "Alright! Time for some action! Wish me luck Takashi!" She was half-way to the arena by the time the last words had left her mouth. She snatched up a Duel Disk from the side of the arena as soon as she reached it, strapped it onto her forearm, and slid her deck from its case on her belt into its respective slot. The equipment beeped in response just before she leapt enthusiastically onto the raised platform of the arena, where Tsura was waiting for her with his own Duel Disk in place.

"Hello, Izumi," the man greeted kindly, "I am Professor Tsura Niya, head of the Ra Yellow dorm of Duelist Academy, and I will be your opponent for this test."

"Okay!" Izumi shouted through her grin, her Disk clicking into place as she activated it, "So long as I get to go first!" (Izumi LP: 4000). A small bead of sweat formed on Tsura's brow, the only indication of a response to her lacking any formality whatsoever.

Takashi sighed at the antics of his new friend, even as Tsura activated his Duel Disk (Tsura LP: 4000) and both duelists drew opening hands. "That girl…" he muttered to himself, "she really needs to learn to show manners in public. What does she think this is, the twenties?"

"I'll start things off with the basics," Izumi declared, a pair of cards sliding into her Duel Disk and a corresponding pair of holographic images appearing on her field, one in front of the other, "one card facedown and a monster in defense mode. Your turn, Tsanya!"

Tsura blinked, processing the name she had just given to him. "It's Tsura, Niya. Two separate words."

"Yeah, but neither is really fun and easy to say," Izumi said simply, "so for right now, you're Tsanya!" She didn't seem to notice the collective sigh of slight exasperation that came up from the rest of building.

"In any case…" Tsura pressed on, drawing a card from his deck, "it's my turn now, regardless of what you decide to call me. And I'll start things off more aggressively, by summoning Enraged Battle Ox (1700/1000) in attack mode." The well-known minotaur stomped onto the field, brandishing its axe threateningly and already pawing the ground with its hoofs in preparation for a charge. "Enraged Battle Ox grants the ability to deal damage through defense to all Beasts and Beast-Warriors on my field," Tsura stated, pointing at Izumi's facedown monster which was, obviously, in defense mode. "Enraged Battle Ox now attacks the facedown monster!" The Beast-Warrior stomped quickly over to Izumi's facedown monster and brought its axe down on the card, cleaving it in half.

Izumi winced as she took the hit to her life points (Izumi LP: 2900), but did not hesitate in activating her facedown card. "I activate my trap card," she declared, as the card flipped up and cast a yellow spotlight on the ceiling above them, featuring a black "D" at its center. "Destiny Signal can be activated when a monster on my field is destroyed!"

Hiroshi leaned in, interested suddenly. "Destiny Signal? Well, I must say, I haven't seen a young duelist use them for some time now…"

Izumi smirked as a card ejected from her deck, before she caught it and placed it on her Duel Disk. "I summon D-Hero Diehard Guy (800/800) in defense mode!" she exclaimed, a bare-chested, muscular man with wild orange hair appearing on the field, his body from the waist down covered in dark blue metal. A pair of large, angular shields made of the same metal were strapped to his arms.

Tsura narrowed his eyes at the monster, trying to remember its effect. "Very well," he stated, sliding a pair of cards into the device on his arm, "I set two cards facedown and end my turn."

Izumi grinned as she drew, setting her hand back at five cards. Then she pointed at Diehard Guy, and said, "When Diehard Guy is on my field during my Standby Phase, I can summon a D-Hero that was destroyed in the previous turn. Therefore I summon the monster you destroyed." As she spoke, a new humanoid creature appeared on the field with a sweep of its red cape. It wore black armor, with gauntlets that ended in claws at each of the fingers, and its facial features were covered by a pale white mask. "I summon D-Hero Devil Guy (400/600) in defense mode and then activate his effect!" exclaimed Izumi, as Devil Guy swept across the field and slashed across Battle Ox's chest. The creature let out a roar of anger and pain before suddenly vanishing from sight. Izumi smirked as she explained, "Once per turn, Devil Guy can remove an opposing monster from play, though I can't attack during the turn I use this effect. So I'll just set one card facedown and end my turn."

Tsura frowned as he drew, and looked over his hand. "What's wrong? You've had two turns and haven't so much as touched my life points yet."

Izumi merely shrugged, and replied, "There's more to a duel than doing damage to your opponent as early as possible."

Tsura chuckled. "Yes, I know," he replied, pressing a button on his Duel Disk, "however, in this duel, I don't believe you can assume such a nonchalant outlook. I summon Gyaku-Gire Panda (800/1600) in attack mode!" An immense panda thundered onto the field with a roar, its blazing-red eyes emphasized by the surrounding black fur. "Gyaku-Gire Panda's attack is increased by five hundred points for each monster on my opponent's field. To take full advantage of this, I activate Ojama Trio, which summons three Ojama Tokens (0/1000) to your field in defense mode!"

Izumi's eyes widened as suddenly her two D-Heroes were surrounded by the three infamous midgets, which appeared in a flash of green, yellow, and black before proceeding to moon her through their ever-ridiculous-looking red briefs. However, it was not simply the tokens on her field that she was worried about, despite the knowledge that their destruction would deal her three hundred points of damage each. Instead, her focus was on the panda that had undergone a tremendous and rapid growth spurt, and was now glaring furiously down on her. _'Uh-oh…'_

"I apologize, Miss Yuusha," Tsura stated, pointing towards Izumi's field, "but I'm going to have to defeat you now. Gyaku-Gire Panda (3300/1600), destroy Diehard Guy!" The large beast bounded forward, and reached for the bare-chested hero with one of its paws, intent on rending the man's flesh.

"Activate facedown trap!" Izumi's shout brought a look of pleasant surprise to Tsura's face, and he looked to the card that Izumi had activated. "D-Counter destroys a monster when it attacks a D-Hero on my field!" Izumi smirked triumphantly as Diehard Guy began emitting a bright golden aura, repelling Gyaku-Gire Panda. "Your bear is toast, Tsanya!"

Up in the stands, Takashi closed his eyes and shook his head. "Pay attention, Izumi," he muttered, "he said he was going to finish the duel this turn, and that attack would've left you with four hundred life points remaining. That means he has some method of getting at your life points left, and judging by the fact that he's running a Beast deck…"

"I'm sorry, Miss Yuusha," Tsura apologized, "but I activate my facedown trap in chain to yours." The facedown card flipped up, and Izumi gasped at the image-the corpse of a boar-like creature lying on the ground while a blue, transparent image of the animal floated from its mouth. "Beast Soul Swap lets me return a Beast from my field to my hand and then summon one of equal or lower level in its place!" The panda suddenly became blue and transparent, then disappeared. With nothing to target, the lethal aura surrounding Diehard Guy vanished. "The monster I choose to summon with Beast Soul Swap is the same Gyaku-Gire Panda (3300/1600), so now I continue my assault on Diehard Guy!" The immense bear reappeared, and lunged on top of the muscular hero, burying him beneath its girth and clawing at him for a few moments before the scuffle ended. Tsura briefly examined his hand, before crossing his arms over his chest. "End turn," (Izumi LP: 400).

Izumi swallowed the lump in her throat before she drew. Her opponent had only taken two turns, and already ninety percent of her life points were gone… _'I have to make a recovery…and fast! If things keep up at this rate, I'll never make the academy!'_ Her eyes drifted towards the crowd of untested students, where Takashi was watching the duel with unblinking eyes. _'And we made a promise that we'd both get in…'_ Her eyes narrowed, and she quickly played her newly drawn card. "I activate Destiny Draw!" she declared, sliding another card from her hand into her graveyard before snapping two new ones from the top of her deck, "This lets me discard a Destiny Hero from my hand to draw two cards. And now I'll take advantage of the monster I discarded by playing Over Destiny!" From her graveyard, a ghostly blue image of an immense and muscular man momentarily appeared, then flashed pure white and vanished. "This spell lets me choose a D-Hero in my graveyard. Then, I can summon a D-Hero from my deck whose level is no more than half of the chosen D-Hero's." A card popped out of her deck, and she immediately slammed it onto the one remaining open monster zone of her Duel Disk. The new D-Hero was a man with yellow-streaked white hair and large chunks of diamond jutting from various areas of his body, a somewhat battle-worn dark green cape cast across his shoulders. "I summon D-Hero Diamond Guy (1400/1600)," Izumi declared, and immediately several of the crystals on Diamond Guy's body began to glow. "Once per turn," she explained, "Diamond Guy lets me reveal the top card of my deck. If it's a spell, it's sent to my graveyard and I can activate it on my next turn. Otherwise, I put the card on the bottom of my deck." She snapped the top card off of her deck and looked at it before scowling. She flipped the card around and said, "D-Shield is a trap, so I place it at the bottom of my deck."

Tsura looked on as she did so. "Even if you had drawn a spell, it wouldn't have helped you much. After all, you haven't set anything up to stop me from defeating you before your next turn even comes around."

Izumi responded by scowling back. "I was just getting to that," she said, removing a card from her Duel Disk to replace it with another. Immediately Devil Guy faded away, and was replaced by a larger monster, wrapped in black, armored plates, with a head that resembled the body of a shark. "I sacrifice Devil Guy to summon D-Hero Dash Guy (2100/1500) in his place!" Izumi declared.

Tsura blinked, then sighed. "Really, Miss Yuusha, please try to think your moves through before executing them. Dash Guy is much too weak to defeat Gyaku-Gire Panda."

Izumi snickered, and suddenly pointed at one of the Ojamas on her field. "That might be the case right now, but I can activate Dash Guy's effect to completely change that. Once per turn, I can sacrifice a monster on my field to increase his attack by one thousand for the duration of the turn." The indicated token suddenly vanished, and Dash Guy was surrounded by a purple aura, his power increasing (3100/1500).

"One thousand extra attack isn't enough," Tsura stated, "Gyaku-Gire Panda is still too powerful to be defeated."

Izumi let one eyebrow quirk up in amusement, "Are you sure about that, Tsanya? I hope you're not being serious, because that would mean that you've forgotten your own monster's effect." Dash Guy suddenly lowered his upper body so that his arms touched the ground, adapting the position of a sprinter preparing to take off. "Dash Guy, go get that big panda now!" Izumi ordered, and suddenly her monster shot forward like a bullet, the wheels attached to his armored feet screeching as he bulldozed headfirst into Gyaku-Gire Panda, knocking the beast off its feet and causing it to shatter into pixels.

Tsura gasped as his life points began to drop (Tsura LP: 3700), and he came to a realization. "No! Of course! By sacrificing the Ojama token, you reduced the number of monsters on your field to four…meaning my Panda was reduced to twenty-eight hundred attack points!"

Izumi grinned broadly, and cast out a hand, "That's right, and now you'll pay for underestimating my actions during this turn. Diamond Guy, attack directly!" The more humanoid-looking of her two heroes thrust his arm out in a slashing motion, several shards of diamond shooting from the arm and slamming into Tsura, chest (Tsura LP: 2300). Izumi took a breath, and looked at Dash Guy, who was now crouching with his arms over his chest, "When Dash Guy attacks, he shifts to defense mode afterwards. Now, I'll end my turn by setting one card facedown."

Tsura shook his head to knock himself out of the dazed state he had entered when the holographic projectiles had smashed into him. Although not fully real, Seto Kaiba's Duel Disk system had a way of adding a physical element to the card game. Tsura drew, and carefully considered his next move before choosing a card from his hand. "I summon Exarion Universe (1800/1500)," he announced, a centaur with its upper torso covered in gleaming blue armor appearing before him, hefting a lance in one arm. "Time to finish this," Tsura declared, casting an arm out as the centaur prepared to attack, "Exarion Universe attacks Diamond Guy!"

Time seemed to slow down as the armored centaur roared and lunged forward, polearm held at the ready. In the midst of this action, Izumi glanced to the crowd, and made eye contact with Takashi, who was watching the duel intently. As she initiated the eye contact, Takashi closed his eyes briefly, for so short a period of time that it was almost a blink, and he focused his thoughts on Izumi. _'Izumi Yuusha…I hardly know you, and so far I just think you're a crazy, overly enthusiastic, and above all very silly girl. But…'_ His eyes drifted open again, the image of the events below reflecting in blank black pools surrounded by rings of ocean blue. _'I'm still holding you to that promise.'_

There was a clang of metal, and suddenly an extra figure was on the dueling field, standing between Tsura's Exarian Universe and the targeted Destiny Hero. The newcomer's entire body save the head was covered in futuristic grey armor, whose most prominent features were the blades extending from its forearms, which were currently grinding against the centaur's lance, blocking the strike. "I activate the effect of D-Hero Dagger Guy (300/600)!" Izumi declared, slipping a card from her hand into the graveyard, "By discarding him from my hand, all Destiny Heroes gain eight hundred attack points for the duration of the turn (Diamond Guy: 2200/1600, Dash Guy: 2900/1000), which means Diamond Guy can now counter-attack!" The named Hero leapt nimbly to the side, flanking the occupied mythical creature that was now locked in combat with Dagger Guy. The green-caped hero lifted his hand, and a spray of diamonds pelted the centaur, before its holographic image shattered (Tsura LP: 1900).

Tsura blinked, surprised but glad that the applicant had staved off another assault, and in the process knocked his life points below the midpoint. "A good move, Miss Yuusha," he complimented, although he was currently slipping a new card into one of the back slots of his Duel Disk, "however, Dagger Guy's effect does not bolster defense…which means Dash Guy is still vulnerable." Suddenly, a large elephant with twin massive tusks protruding from its mouth appeared, and it let out a deafening trumpet. "By activating the spell card Unstoppable Stampede when a Beast or Beast-Warrior is destroyed in battle," Tsura explained the sudden appearance of the new beast, "I can immediately summon another from my hand that is up to two levels higher than the destroyed monster. So now, Rampaging Elephant (2400/1500), with its ability to deal damage through defense, will finish up this duel by attacking Dash Guy!" The ground shook slightly as the large beast rumbled forward, lowering its head to pierce through Dash Guy's armored body.

Izumi reacted only with a smirk and a twitch of her finger over her Duel Disk. "That's a pretty cool move, Tsanya," she complimented, as her lone set card flipped up, "but it's not gonna be enough. I made a promise that I'd get into this school, and I have every intention of keeping that promise. Activate trap card, Destiny Renewal!" A whirring noise emitted from her Duel Disk for a moment, and then five cards spat out of its graveyard slot, into her waiting hand, where she fanned them out, briefly looked them over, and held them out to Tsura. "This card shuffles my graveyard, after which I pick up the top five cards and shuffle them into my deck. For each monster amongst the five cards I gain one thousand life points, so I now have the life points to survive the attack!" Tsura peered at the cards she held from across the field, and saw that she was right: his attack would deal 1400 damage, but in her hand she now gripped Diehard Guy, Dagger Guy, Destiny Draw, Over Destiny, and Destiny Signal, which would grant her 2000 life points for a net gain of six hundred after the Battle Damage had been applied. That said, his Elephant's tusks had run Dash Guy clean through, and the shark-headed hero exploded violently, leaving only Diamond Guy on Izumi's field (Izumi's LP: 1000).

Tsura took a short breath, and emptied his remaining hand into his Duel Disk to prepare for Izumi's coming turn. "Two cards facedown, and that ends my turn."

Izumi nodded, a light smirk playing over her features, and she placed her fingers on the top card of her deck. "Alright, Tsanya, let's finish this duel up! I draw!" Her eyes lit up at the sight of the card, which she suddenly slapped on top of her Duel Disk. Tsura saw that the monster she had placed on her Duel Disk had six level stars: it required a sacrifice to be summoned.

"Now just hold on a moment there, Miss Yuusha!" he said sternly, authority suddenly blossoming in his voice and stance as opposed to the lenient and friendly one that had been present until now, "I know you think this is an important duel, but you must follow the rules no matter how much you want to win. I can see from here that the monster you wish to summon requires a tribute, so-"

Izumi rolled her eyes, "Sheesh, you sure can jump to conclusions real fast, Tsanya. Can't you just let me explain my move?" Tsura blinked, and was quiet. Izumi removed a card from her Duel Disk and held it out for Tsura to see, revealing it to be Dash Guy. "Dash Guy has an additional effect besides his sacrifice ability: once during the duel while he's in the graveyard, if I draw a monster during my Draw Phase, I can immediately Special Summon it." The monster that she had played shimmered into view, revealing itself as a demonic and muscular humanoid with orange skin fringed with black fur, with two immense leathery wings and three horns protruding from its head. "This is D-Hero Diabolic Guy (800/800)," introduced Izumi, "and although he's a lot weaker than he looks, he definitely has his uses."

Tsura was suddenly surprised when his Enraged Battle Ox reappeared on his field, now flanking his Rampaging Elephant. Izumi offered an explanation, "Although Devil Guy can remove an opposing monster from play once each turn, there are limits to his ability. Two turns after Devil Guy activates his effect, the affected monster is summoned from out of play, which means Enraged Battle Ox (1700/1000) is back just in time to see me finish you off!" She slid a card from her hand into her Duel Disk, a highly recognizable image appearing before her. "I activate The Warrior Returning Alive, which lets me pick up a Warrior from my graveyard and add it to my hand." A single card slid from her graveyard, and she fidgeted with it for a few moments after retrieving it.

Tsura blinked, "So you wanted to recover Dash Guy? But that doesn't make any sense…although you'll be able to deal some damage, Dash Guy will be forced into defense mode afterwards, making him vulnerable to the tramplng effects of whatever monster remains on my field."

Her response made him blink again. "Silly Tsanya…stop underestimating my strategy like that. I'm picking up the D-Hero that I discarded to activate Destiny Draw!" Tsura thought back to that play, going over it once again in his mind.

* * *

"_I activate Destiny Draw!" she declared, sliding another card from her hand into her graveyard before snapping two new ones from the top of her deck, "This lets me discard a Destiny Hero from my hand to draw two cards. And now I'll take advantage of the monster I discarded by playing Over Destiny!" From her graveyard, a ghostly blue image of an immense and muscular man momentarily appeared, then flashed pure white and vanished. "This spell lets me choose a D-Hero in my graveyard. Then, I can summon a D-Hero from my deck whose level is no more than half of the chosen D-Hero's." A card popped out of her deck, and she immediately slammed it onto the one remaining open monster zone of her Duel Disk. The new D-Hero was a man with yellow-streaked white hair and large chunks of diamond jutting from various areas of his body, a somewhat battle-worn dark green cape cast across his shoulders. "I summon D-Hero Diamond Guy (1400/1600)," Izumi declared._

_

* * *

_

"Diamond Guy is a level four monster…" Tsura said, mostly to himself, "which means the D-Hero she discarded had to be at least a level eight warrior…" His eyes widened, "Which means-!"

"I can see you've figured it out," Izumi said with a grin, her two monsters vanishing into twin pillars of light, as she offered them as tributes, "and that's good. Although the Destiny Heroes aren't as well-known as they used to be, everyone should remember this monster- the driving force behind the strategy…" What appeared in the two monsters' place was a behemoth of a man with dark skin, garbed only in torn purple pants. Manacles connected to broken lengths of chain were locked to his wrists, and an iron mask was clasp over his head, below which a third chain hung from his neck, much like a necklace. A mass of black hair hung from his scalp, and large red scars interrupted the otherwise constant expanse of tanned muscular flesh that made up his body.

Tsura took an involuntary step back as the immense man let out an intense battle cry, while Izumi calmly spoke, "Introducing the one, the only, D-Hero Dread Guy (?/?)!" As she said this, two cards slid out of her graveyard, and both Diamond Guy (1400/1600) and Dash Guy (2100/1000) reappeared on either side of Dread Guy. "Dread Guy has a number of effects," Izumi stated, "for one thing, as you should have already noticed, when he's summoned, I can then summon up to two Destiny Heroes from my graveyard. Dread Guy then draws strength from those Destiny Heroes- his base attack and defense are the combined attack and defense of all Destiny Heroes on the field (3500/2600)!"

Tsura grinned, and clapped his hands a few times in applause. "An impressive move with so few cards, Miss Yuusha," he complimented, before ceasing his clapping, "with that force, you could finish off my life points in this turn." However, he pushed a pair of buttons on his Duel Disk, causing both of his set cards to activate. "However, I have a few cards to activate before simply letting you gain victory. First, Call of the Haunted to revive Gyaku-Gire Panda!" The black and white bear tore out of the ground at his words, eyes blazing red as it took to the field (3300/1600). "My other card will then allow me to prevent me from losing my monster: The Big March of Animals increases the attack and defense of all my Beasts and Beast-Warriors by two hundred for each such monster on my field. That's a total of six hundred points for all three of my monsters (Gyaku-Gire Panda: 3900/2200, Enraged Battle Ox: 2300/1600, Rampaging Elephant: 3000/2100)!" The three gathered beasts roared and trumpeted in unison as their individual strength rose, assuring that one would not fall and that Tsura would survive the deaths of the other two.

Izumi let out a small giggle, and gave a short round of applause of her own. "That's pretty cool, Tsanya, it's been awhile since I've seen someone get so many strong monsters on their field like that. Of course, it really doesn't matter, since now I basically know you've got nothing to stop me."

"What are you talking about, Miss Yuusha?" Tsura frowned, wondering what the applicant was trying to say, "I clearly now have a set of monsters that you cannot defeat in this turn. Gyaku-Gire Panda will survive, and maintain its high level of power as well as its trample ability. In my next turn, I'll simply have to finish this duel."

"Silly Tsanya," Izumi said with a dismissive wave of her hand, "have you forgotten Dash Guy's effect already? And I still have a couple of tributes ready for him…" Tsura's eyes widened in realization, and he did some quick mental math. The results didn't add up to a good ending for him. "I tribute an Ojama token to increase Dash Guy's attack (3100/1000), and as a result that increases Dread Guy's power (4500/2600)!" Her two monsters glowed with a purple aura as another Ojama token disappeared from her field, while Gyaku-Gire Panda's power dropped (3400/2200). "Now, time for me to finish this!" Izumi exclaimed, casting an arm forward enthusiastically, "Dash Guy, Dread Guy, attack! Destiny Assault!" The two Destiny Heroes rushed forward, Dash Guy meeting his target first and decking Enraged Battle Ox with an armored arm. Then the immense Dread Guy met Gyaku-Gire Panda with an open-handed palm strike that knocked the bear's head back, before it tipped over completely and crashed to the ground.

Tsura could only look on with some degree of astonishment as his life point counter trickled downwards, emptying with a buzz (Tsura LP: 0). As the holograms faded, he looked down and across at an ecstatic Izumi and only spoke three words: "Wow…good work…"

Izumi responded with a wave, before galloping off the arena and up into the stands. Takashi rose to meet her, and she immediately tackled him in another enthusiastic hug. "I did it!"

Takashi's face began to turn blue. "Izumi…" he gasped out, with some effort, "lungs…air…breathe…"

"Oh, right," Izumi released the taller boy, then stood and helped him up. She then put a hand behind her head in a gesture of embarrassment, "Sorry about that…"

Takashi sighed and brushed himself off, "Don't worry about it. Sheesh, who taught you manners, a pack of wolves?"

"Hey, wolves are cool!" objected Izumi, "I wanted to get one, but my parents said no…" Takashi, quite simply, had nothing to say in response.

Shin Jougo adjusted his blue coat and stood as the young head of Ra Yellow reached the summit of the stairs and resumed his station. "Alright then," the more experienced professor stated, glancing down at the seated Hiroshi, "I'm up. Who's the next applicant?"

Takashi's head jerked as he heard his name called. "Takashi Kasei," the academy principal's voice rang out, "please report to the dueling arena for testing."

"Alright!" yelled Izumi enthusiastically, "We're getting tested back to back, how cool!" She emphasized the last word by slapping Takashi on the back. Unfortunately, she was too slow to realize her mistake, as Takashi was sent tumbling down the stairs, leaving Izumi looking more flustered than ever, standing alone on the steps. Once again she resumed her embarrassed pose, one hand behind her neck, a small grimace on her face, "Um…oops…"

"…" Takashi felt frustrated. Humiliated, yes. Pain, definitely. But mostly he just felt frustrated. "…Ouch," he muttered, getting to his feet and throwing a glare over his shoulder at Izumi, who chuckled weakly and hid behind one of the seats in the bleachers. He sighed, "It can't be helped…" and, checking that his injuries were all very minor, jumped onto the arena, grabbing a Duel Disk along the way.

"Not a very good way to impress your opponents or judges," Shin commented, already standing in his respective position, deck and Duel Disk ready (Shin LP: 4000). Takashi said nothing in response, instead choosing to strap on his Duel Disk and set his personal deck in place (Takashi LP: 4000). Shin plunged onward, "I believe introductions are in order. I am Shin Jougo, professor of several science-based classes at Duelist Academy and head of the Obelisk Blue dorm."

Takashi adopted a polite tone, "Hello, Professor Jougo. I am Takashi Kasei." He bowed respectively, "It is a pleasure to meet you."

"My, my," Shin said with a pleased smirk, and he bowed in response, though not so low as Takashi, "it's nice to see someone show respect around here. Unlike your strange friend over there."

Takashi came up from his bow and glanced back at the stands, where Izumi was shouting and holding up a sign that had appeared from nowhere. On the sign she had scrawled the words "Go Takashi!" and was currently shouting something that sounded very much like those two words. Takashi sighed, and his head fell into his palm. "Could we please just get on with the duel, sir?"

"Of course, my boy," Shin replied, both duelists drawing their opening hands, "naturally, this means that a card from my deck now activates."

Takashi's eyes widened marginally, "A card that activates from the deck at the very beginning of the duel? There aren't very many of those…"

"That's quite true, Takashi Kasei," Shin responded, "but nonetheless, this test deck contains one. Activate Field of Battle, a card which allows both of us to immediately place a field spell card on top of our decks, and allows field cards to co-exist in order to account for the chance that both of us immediately play them." Shin removed his deck from its slot, and fanned it out to seek out his field card. Meanwhile, Takashi took no such action.

"My deck contains no Field cards," he stated, "so it seems you're the only one to receive the benefit of your spell."

"That's usually the way things work out," Shin replied, finding the proper card and shuffling his deck before placing the card on top of the stack. "And now I believe I'll take the first turn," he announced, drawing the top card of his deck- the one he had just placed there. "I'll now take us to a location well-known in various fantasies, using the field card A Legendary Ocean!" The arena changed as the field card took effect, stone structures and aqueducts erecting themselves all about them. The entire network of buildings was surrounded by the clear blue water of the sea. "My field card has various useful effects," Shin stated, "but before we get to them, the activation of a field spell card activates the effect of The Undying Zone from my deck, which will prevent A Legendary Ocean from ever being destroyed!"

Takashi's lips curled into a frown as he took all this in. _'He used two cards to immediately get A Legendary Ocean into play and make sure it stayed there,'_ he thought to himself, _'that means that the test deck he's using is a Sea deck of some sort. And he'll probably try to exploit the Legendary Ocean's effect to get out a powerful attacker first thing…'_

Takashi gave himself a small mental pat on the back for his prediction when Shin announced his next move. "A Legendary Ocean lowers the level of all Water monsters in our hands and fields by one, which means I can now summon Giga Gagagigo (2450/1500) without sacrifice!" The large reptile shimmered into view with a roar. The muscular humanoid lizard's green flesh was interspersed with cold silver metallic parts, giving him the look of a reptilian cyborg. "My field card also increases the attack and defense of all Water monsters by two hundred points, making Giga Gagagigo even stronger (2650/1700)," Shin declared. He then concluded his move with a single motion, "One card facedown, and I pass the turn to you."

As Takashi drew, Hiroshi turned his attention to the computer in front of him. He and his dorm heads had managed to come to a consensus on Izumi relatively quickly, and now he was taking a moment to look over Takashi's written exam score. He skimmed through the first few sections- so many of the applicants had received perfect scores on the rules and general card knowledge portions of the test that the sections really only acted as a method of filtering out the absolutely least experienced of duelists. True separation amongst the applicants showed up in the historical portion, as well as the newer "Theoretical Situation Section." Hiroshi had made a mental note to personally thank the person who had come up with the section, as it had been crafted to be the perfect difficulty level- most duelists could only solve half of the situations, and less than five of the two hundred or so applicants had solved all ten. Which was why Hiroshi was pleasantly surprised to see that Takashi had done so, though this accomplishment was hindered somewhat by the fact that he had definitely struggled on the historical section. Izumi, the duelist who had been tested last, had been almost perfect on this section, though she had not performed as aptly on the final section. Hiroshi turned his thoughts away from the screen, and back to the dueling field.

"I summon Soul of Timidity (700/500) in defense mode," Takashi declared. As the card hit his Duel Disk, a small and petite girl appeared in front of him, crouching. Her appearance was rather ethereal, and she was garbed in a lightly glowing yellow dress tinged with white and black, her yellow hair framing her small, pale-skinned face. "And that will be all."

"WHAT!?" Izumi exclaimed, and face-fell out of shock, and Shin and the other instructors blinked at the simplicity of the move.

"Well, that's somewhat surprising," Hiroshi remarked. He had been expecting a much more complex move from this duelist who had managed to solve ten different dueling puzzles of significant difficulty.

Shin reacted far less than the other observers, and calmly drew. "If you expect to get into the academy after such a simple move, you had best be prepared to encounter a good degree of disappointment, Takashi Kasei," he stated, placing another card onto his Duel Disk, "I summon Mermaid Knight (1500/700), who immediately receives a boost in strength from A Legendary Ocean (1700/900)." At his words, a red-haired mermaid with a blue-scaled fish tail and gripping a silver sword appeared, hovering in the water. "A Legendary Ocean is treated as being named 'Umi' while in play," Shin declared, "and Mermaid Knight gains the ability to attack twice in one Battle Phase while Umi is in play. All in all, that means this duel is over! Mermaid Knight, use your first attack to destroy his Soul of Timidity!" The mermaid swept forward swiftly and gracefully, gliding through the water with ease with her sword raised. She reached the Soul and struck, but before her attack could make contact, the target covered her face with her arms and cried out in terror, before suddenly vanishing in a flash of yellow light. Shin blinked, "What happened?"

Takashi smirked, and held up his hand, which now gripped six cards instead of five. "As her name suggests, Soul of Timidity isn't the type to stand and fight," he explained, "when she is declared the target of an attack while face-up, I can return her to my hand to negate the attack and end the Battle Phase immediately. However, I am not allowed to normal summon or set her in my next turn after this effect resolves."

Shin scowled at having been denied so casually. "Very well then," he allowed, "I set one more card facedown, and end my turn."

"I draw," Takashi declared, and did so, giving him a good seven cards in hand to start his turn. His eyes lit up at the sight of his newest card, which he added to his hand before playing another card. "I activate Heavy Storm, destroying all spells and traps on the field," he announced, and the tornado known well by many duelists sprung into existence in the middle of the field. Its fierce winds ripped away both of Shin's set cards, although the Legendary Ocean remained in place when the storm had vanished, protected by The Undying Zone's effect.

'_Nonetheless,'_ Shin mentally remarked to himself, _'he successfully eliminated two defensive traps that could have been very useful to me- Tornado Wall and Torrential Tribute. He's performing rather admirably thus far.'_

After assuring that his previous action was a success, Takashi slapped the card he had drawn at the start of his turn onto his Duel Disk without hesitation, "I summon Soul of Courage (1400/1200) to the field." His next monster was a tall, broad-shouldered, and handsome man wearing red and silver armor. Long red tresses flowed like a mane from beneath his silver helmet, which was crafted in the image of a lion's head. He held a red-hilted sword, and a gleaming red badge adorned his breastplate, decorating the area over his heart. "And now, Soul of Courage will attack Mermaid Knight!"

Both duelists heard a shriek of "WHAT!?" from Izumi's position, but paid it no mind. Shin's eyes narrowed as he spoke, "You do realize that your Soul of Courage is three hundred points weaker than my Mermaid Knight, correct?" He awaited the explanation for the action, anticipating a combo or effect of some sort.

Takashi smirked very slightly, and responded, "Yes, I do, and that's the whole point. When Soul of Courage battles a monster with a higher attack than his own, I am allowed to activate his effect- Blade of Fortitude." With the final three words spoken, Takashi slid three cards from the top of his deck, then shoved them lightly into his graveyard. "I can discard up to three cards from the top of my deck in order to increase Courage's attack and defense by three hundred points each; this effect lasts until the end of the turn but can only be activated once per turn. My discarding three cards thus gives him a boost of nine hundred points (2300/2100)." The Soul's sword glowed with a blazing red aura, and he struck mightily, cleaving through the Mermaid Knight's raised sword and then the sea creature's torso with ease (Shin LP: 3400). "First blood is mine, Professor Jougo," Takashi declared, "I set two cards facedown, and end my turn."

Shin decided a higher level of play was necessary to test this applicant than what he had encountered previously. The professor was getting the feeling that he would have to employ every ounce of the test deck's power in order to put Takashi's skills to an adequately difficult test. "I play Graceful Charity," Shin declared, foregoing the process of explaining the popular card's effect as he drew three cards and pondered on what two to discard. After some thought, a combo formed in his mind, and he met the cost of the spell. "Next, Giga Gagagigo will attack Soul of Courage. Even with its effect, your monster will be destroyed!"

"We'll see," Takashi replied calmly, a smile attempting to pull at his lips, "but in any case, I activate the Blade of Fortitude and discard three cards from my deck!" A quick repositioning of cards later, and Takashi's Soul of Courage (2300/2100) was charging forth to meet the reptile with his glowing blade. Before the two could clash, however, Takashi had made another motion. "Activate facedown card," he declared, a quickplay spell flipping up in front of him, "Raw Emotion-Cool Tranquility negates a battle involving a Soul monster. Afterwards, all face-up monsters may immediately attack the opposing duelist's life points directly!" Shin's eyes widened as suddenly the Soul of Courage was surrounded by a cold blue aura, and sidestepped around Giga Gagagigo. Then both monsters charged right past each other, and each assumed a new target.

The sword of the Soul of Courage slashed through Shin's body, dealing a crushing blow to his life points (Shin LP: 1100), and the professor was not completely surprised to see a barrier of light spring up around his opponent, protecting Takashi from Giga Gagagigo's blows. "The trap card Hallowed Life Barrier prevents all damage to me this turn," Takashi explained, as the barrier faded and both duelists' monsters returned to their respective positions on the field, "although it does cost a card from my hand to activate." That said, he slid one card from his hand into the graveyard, leaving him with two remaining. He shook his head and rolled his eyes when he heard Izumi's cheers coming from the bleachers, although a look of slight amusement played across his face.

Shin's expression was somewhat sour as he set two cards facedown and awaited Takashi's next move. The boy was quite impressive- he had guarded his life points from all damage so far and chipped away Shin's own to just over a quarter their original amount. Still, the professor was confident that his next move would manage to knock the younger duelist for a loop. He turned his attention to Takashi as the teenager placed another card on his Duel Disk, another person appearing next to the Soul of Courage. "I summon Soul of Depression (800/1200) in defense mode," he announced the new Soul's appearance. This Soul was a pale-skinned man wearing clothes of somber black and shades of dark blue and purple, including a dark purple cloak that hung over his shoulders. He was sitting cross-legged on the ground, dark blue hair hanging over his face, as he stared at his own open-palmed and empty hands.

As soon as the Soul of Depression hit the field, a black aura appeared around him, and soon extended to encapsulate Shin's Giga Gagagigo, which sighed and slumped. "What's going on?" Shin demanded, "What's your monster doing to my Giga Gagagigo?"

"Depression's ability extends his own sadness to each of your monsters," Takashi explained, "this decreases their attack and defense by four hundred points each (Giga Gagagigo: 2250/1300). So now that he can defeat your monster, Soul of Courage will attack Giga Gagagigo with Blade of Fortitude (2300/2100)!"

Shin noticed that as he declared the assault, Takashi's eyes twitched to look at the pair of set cards positioned behind Giga Gagagigo. _'He has a possible counter in his hand should I activate something to stop him,'_ Shin discerned from this motion, _'a good duelist and strategist, prepared for my own actions…though he could work a little on his poker face. Still, I can't stop him.'_ The large reptile was beheaded by the Soul's blazing sword, chipping away at Shin's life points even further (Shin LP: 1050).

"I set one card facedown," Takashi concluded, sliding one of his two remaining cards into his Duel Disk, "and end my turn."

Shin smirked. _'Time to go to work,'_ he thought to himself, drawing the top card of his deck, and then pressing two buttons on his Duel Disk. "I activate both of my set cards in sequence," he declared, "first, Call of the Haunted to revive a monster from my graveyard." The trap took effect, and a red-skinned frog rose up from the ground, its long tongue flicking out a few times experimentally. "This is Poison Draw Frog (100/100-0/0). Next, my quickplay spell card activates, School of Fish," Shin continued, and he removed his deck from his Duel Disk for the second time in the duel and fanned it out in front of his face. As he sifted through it, he explained his card's effect. "This is a less costly but more restricted version of Reckless Summoning of Hell. When a Water monster with under fifteen hundred attack points is special summoned to my field, I can immediately summon the other copies from my deck at no cost." He found both the copies from his deck and slapped them on his Duel Disk, calling forth two more Poison Draw Frogs (100/100-0/0 x2) before replacing his deck.

Takashi crossed his arms across his chest and looked seriously at three gathered amphibians. "Alright, you got three monsters out with just two cards," he conceded, "but they're all pretty weak, and you've left your life points vulnerable."

"Patience, Takashi Kasei," Shin assured, a card from his hand sliding into his Duel Disk, "I play Pot of Greed, and draw two new cards." The resulting benefits of the oft-played spell pleased him a great deal, and he wasted no time in activating another card from his hand. "Salvage lets me pick up two level four or lower Water monsters from my graveyard and add them to my hand." A pair of cards slid out of the respective slot of his Duel Disk, and he plucked them from the metal trey and added them to his hand. "And now I'll put those monsters to good use: I play Big Wave Small Wave!" Takashi was surprised when suddenly an immense wave of lava rose up from nowhere, and crashed over Shin's field, engulfing his three Poison Draw Frogs.

"What's he doing?" Izumi questioned openly, obviously confused, "What's the point of destroying his monsters when he went to such trouble to get all of them out?"

"Big Wave Small Wave destroys all face-up Water monsters on my field," Shin declared, "however, I am then allowed to summon Water monsters from my hand equal to the number destroyed." He flipped his three-card hand around, revealing all of the cards to be Water monsters, and placed them one by one onto his Duel Disk. The sea of lava dispersed, revealing the Mermaid Knight from before, a strange orange, submarine-like vehicle with stocky legs, and most prominently a blue- and white-scaled serpentine creature with a long red fin running along its spine and a mouth rimmed with sharp, needle-like teeth. "Behold," Shin announced, "Mermaid Knight (1500/700-1300/500), Amphibious Bugroth MK-3 (1500/1300-1300/1100), and Levia-Dragon - Daedalus (2600/1500-2400/1300)!"

Takashi cast a glance at his set card for reassurance. Shin had definitely taken control of the field, but he could survive the coming assault without too much trouble. The problem would be dealing with the Levia-Dragon later. However, his hopeful thoughts were disrupted when three long, pink tongues snaked out of Shin's graveyard and snagged a card each from the top of the professor's deck. "When Poison Draw Frog is destroyed while face-up," the teacher explained, "I draw one card." He accepted the offered cards from the three tongues, and smirked as he looked them over. "Perfect," he announced, and suddenly Daedalus was surrounded by a column of blue and white light, "I sacrifice Daedalus in order to summon his evolved, more powerful form: Ocean Dragon Lord – Neo-Daedalus (2900/1600-2700/1400)!" The column of light dispersed, and in the serpentine dragon's placed now hovered a larger, fiercer-looking version of the original. Its head was relatively unchanged, but its spinal fin was larger and sharper, and as its tail snaked through the water, Takashi could see a second, worm-like head crowning the tail.

"And now for a change of scenery," Shin declared, as suddenly the water began to drain from the field. Takashi caught sight of the second head of the sea serpent, which was currently doing the impossible: it was sucking in the entire body of water currently engulfing the field of battle. "I activate Neo-Daedalus's effect by sacrificing Umi, or in this case A Legendary Ocean, to destroy everything! Our hands, the field, everything will go to the graveyard except for the Ocean Dragon Lord!" As Shin finished speaking, the serpentine beast finished draining the field of water, and its primary head opened its maw, the entire sea flooding out and carrying away everything in its path.

Takashi braced his feet against the ground, and responded by slamming his finger onto a button on his Duel Disk. "Activate set card!" he shouted, before the water roared over him, blocking his field from view. When the water faded, both duelists' hands were empty, gone along with Shin's Mermaid Knight and Amphibious Bugroth, and Takashi's set card and Soul of Depression (Ocean Dragon Lord – Neo-Daedalus: 2900/1600). However, the Soul of Courage remained, basked in a brilliant red aura and standing stoutly before Takashi. "My set card was Raw Emotion-Unheeding Valor," the teen declared, "which negates the destruction of a Soul monster and increases its attack by five hundred for the turn (Soul of Courage: 1900/1200)."

Shin's lips quirked up in a smirk, and he motioned towards Neo-Daedalus. "Very well, you've survived this turn," he stated, "but that doesn't mean you won't be taking immense amounts of damage this turn. One of the cards I discarded was Levia-Dragon's Rage, which when sent to the graveyard by the effect of Daedalus or Neo-Daedalus deals my opponent three hundred points of damage for each card sent to the graveyard. That's seven cards at three hundred damage each, for a total of 2100!" Neo-Daedalus's second head suddenly darted forward, striking Takashi in the chest and knocking him onto his back (Takashi LP: 1900).

"Neo-Daedalus, strike down Soul of Courage!" Shin followed up this large blow to Takashi's Life Points by immediately calling up another, and his serpentine monster responded immediately. The beast's second head snapped forward, clamping down on the armored warrior's waist and hefting him off the ground with ease.

"I won't let Soul of Courage go down without a fight!" Takashi exclaimed, sliding three cards from his deck into his graveyard, "Activate Blade of Fortitude!" Immediately, the swordsman began fighting back against the more powerful beast vigorously, bringing his sword down repeatedly on the head. Still, the Soul of Courage (2800/2100) could not fight back the Ocean Dragon Lord, who responded to his struggling by bringing its other head into the battle, and ripping the Soul's body in half.

"A rather useless gesture, powering up your Soul of Courage when it played no role in deciding the battle," Shin commented smugly, crossing his arms over his chest. In the back of his mind, he knew he was only supposed to be testing the teen, but he was getting caught up in the moment, and understandably so.

"Are you sure about that?" Takashi questioned, "Because there's one thing you have to consider when your opponent discards large numbers of cards from their deck."

"Oh?" Shin prompted, "And what exactly would that be?"

"The possibility that they'll discard a certain popularly-played card," Takashi answered, holding up one of the cards he had discarded to activate the effect of his Soul of Courage the last time, "Repayment of Losses, when sent to the graveyard, lets me draw one card." He drew the card confidently, then paused to assure that Shin's turn was truly over. After receiving this confirmation, he paused for a moment, and rubbed at his sternum under his shirt. Following this, he drew a card to start his turn. Upon seeing it, he smirked confidently. "And that one draw gives me all I need."

"I highly doubt that," Shin stated calmly, though he was not ignorant of the fact that with a single monster and no set cards on his field, Takashi's statement could very well ring true. Such were the limitations of a test deck.

"I play Soul Revival," declared Takashi, "this summons a Soul monster from one of two locations to my field, and I choose my graveyard." What emerged as a result of his play was a monster that had not been played so far. Instead, Shin deduced that it must have been another of the cards Takashi had discarded throughout the course of the duel to feed the effect of his Soul of Courage. The Soul was no doubt the strangest Takashi had summoned so far- initially it was a strange configuration of vibrant green vines decorated by pink roses, surrounding a pale human face whose eyes were closed serenely. However, within moments, the vines had turned to a rotten green-brown shade, and the petals of the roses became pure black. The eyes of the creature snapped open, revealing demonic slits of red. The thing hissed, revealing razor-sharp teeth, and rose up with its vines waving about in the air. "I summon the Soul of Hatred (1900/1800)!" Takashi declared.

"Hm…" Shin murmured, "a fearsome-looking creature, doubtless. But it cannot stand against the Ocean Dragon Lord."

"Not yet," Takashi acknowledged, "but I'll take care of that problem right now. Activate Souls of the Departed!" Instantly, more than a dozen orbs of light flooded out of the graveyard slot of his Duel Disk, surrounding the Soul of Hatred and infusing it with power. "The effect of my spell is a bit more complex than the explanation I'm about to give, but for now all you need to know is that in the current situation it'll increase Hatred's attack power by one hundred for each card in my graveyard, which is currently twenty!" The Soul of Hatred roared a screeching battle cry, rising up on its vines as the black roses about its form grew from the influx of power (3900/1800).

"Unbelievable…" was the only word Tsura could use to describe the sight of the ferocious plant-thing preparing to strike down Shin's now relatively weak sea dragon.

"Quite impressive," included Kamin, albeit a great deal more neutrally, "his strategy flows quite well- a good number of his cards rely upon his graveyard containing many cards, and his use of Soul of Courage assures that will happen. It's just a shame that he's going to fall a little short…"

"Hmph," spoke up Hiroshi from his seat, "don't be so sure of that. That Soul of Hatred, I'll have you know, is a level five monster. What kind of effect do you think it has to merit such a weak attack score at that level?"

"Soul of Hatred, attack Neo-Daedalus!" Takashi commanded, and almost before the order came, the demonic plant was shuffling forward. A series of vines darted out, striking the serpentine creature's body and drawing blood in the form of numerous shallow cuts. Eventually, the ocean creature was overrun by vines, and it fell to the assault, screeching in agony (Shin LP: 50).

Shin was panting now, the intensity of the duel beginning to have a physical effect on him. Takashi was breathing a little heavily as well, but as he had not been on the receiving end of so many blows, he was far less affected. "A good shot," complimented Shin, grinning, "but now you've made the same mistake you were reprimanding me for earlier. Souls of the Departed will wear off when you end your turn, and then you'll be left with a monster with 1900 attack points and no spells or traps to defend it."

Takashi smirked in response, "Actually…Souls of the Departed did far more than I needed it to. This move would've been the finisher if Soul of Hatred had only beaten Neo-Daedalus by as few as fifty points." He raised an arm, and pointed a finger at Shin's feet. "Or hadn't you noticed the delivery Hatred made while she was over there?"

Shin looked down to where Takashi was gesturing, and was surprised to find that a pair of black-petaled roses were planted in the ground at his feet. "Hatred's effect," Takashi offered as explanation, "whenever she deals battle damage to my opponent's life points, or destroys a monster as a result of battle, she leaves a little present for them- a single rose from her body." Takashi's smirk grew wider, as suddenly a noxious gas emanating from the two roses filled Shin's nostrils, "For each rose she leaves you, you take five hundred points of damage, and that's far more than enough to end this duel!" The effect of the odor caused Shin to stumble, and he unceremoniously toppled backwards, his back hitting the ground as his life point counter bottomed out (Shin LP: 0).

"YEAH!" Izumi's cheer hit Takashi with semi-deafening force despite the distance between them, and he sighed as he glanced over at her. She was now somehow turning cartwheels in the bleachers without colliding into anything.

'_How is it possible for someone so short to have so much energy?'_ Takashi wondered to himself, as the holograms on the field faded. He walked across the arena, and stood over Shin, who had only just started to recover from his wooziness. Takashi offered a hand to assist the professor, who gladly accepted it with a smile, and pulled himself to his feet.

"Polite to the end I see, Takashi Kasei," Shin commented, smiling down at the teenager. "It seems you were given a proper upbringing."

"Thank you, Professor," Takashi replied, with a bow of his head. Shin returned the gesture, and headed back up the steps to the board of judges. Takashi watched him go for a few moments, realizing that in all likelihood this Shin Jougo would be one of his teachers in the years to come. Hopefully the experience would be as good as the one the two had just had together. Then he turned, and departed the arena, paying half-attention to the name that the principal was currently calling for. He met Izumi half-way up the steps, she having descended to congratulate him. She was grinning openly, and Takashi couldn't find it in him to prevent a small smile from pulling up the corners of his lips. "Well, looks like we did it," Takashi stated factually. He instinctively raised an arm and pressed a finger against her forehead when she lunged to try and hug him again. "Okay okay, that's enough of that for one day. Or one month. Or one lifetime."

Izumi's eyes twinkled as she responded wittily, "You really have never kissed a girl before, have you?" Then she broke out into laughter when his right eyebrow began twitching uncontrollably. Takashi let out a sigh as his new friend laughed her heart out. It was, at the very least, going to be very interesting at Duelist Academy…

* * *

So there you have it, the story has begun! I hope you guys liked this chapter…It's seriously the longest single chapter I've ever written- quite a way to open up a fic. Leave a review if you liked it, and I hope you stay with me as the story progresses.

_Takashi and Izumi enter Duelist Academy together, just as they promised each other. The first thing to address? Meeting their roommates, of course! And does Takashi have a strange couple of new companions… Although Takashi and one of his roommates seem to be rubbing each other the wrong way, there's always a tried and true method of settling disputes at Duelist Academy!_

_Next Time: Strange New Companions - Clash of Sleeping Privileges!_


	2. Strange New Companions

There is nothing important to read up here. Seriously. Just go on to the actual chapter. Why are you still looking up here? What, you want something else? You want me to stop talking, is that it? Well, I'm not gonna stop until YOU stop reading. Yep. I'm not gonna be the first to stop, you are. You are! You…you…you…are…you…are…are…you…Screw it, I give up.

**Part the Clouds  
****Chapter Two: Strange New Companions-Battle of Sleeping Privileges!**

There were two methods of reaching Kaiba's Duelist Academy for students. The first was traveling by air, the second was by sea. Because airline service sucks even in first class, most students opted to reach the academy via cruise ship, which could also carry a good number more students. In this way, passengers could, should the need arise, sleep in their own rooms (which prevented them from killing each other), had available space to duel each other, and were given access to food that was actually edible. Far more than edible, really- the buffet table stationed on the main deck featured a wide variety of delicacies on it. Yes, Takashi was certain that he had made the right choice when he had opted to travel on the cruise ship. The journey thus far had been absolutely perfect…

"I'M FLYING, TAKASHI!"…Well, almost perfect.

Takashi sighed, and turned to look up at Izumi, who was balanced precariously on the bow of the ship, hands spread like wings as she leaned into the cruiser's course. Her black hair, loose from its usual ponytail, was flapping in the wind. "Get down from there," he said tiredly, wondering how the girl hadn't yet gone hoarse from her constant yelling, "you'll get in trouble if the wrong person sees you. And that's beside the fact that you'll kill yourself if you fall over."

"Okay, okay, just one more," Izumi waved him off, then turned back to the ocean ahead of them and shouted, "I'M QUEEN OF THE WORLD!"

"You're the queen of headaches, at the very least," Takashi muttered under his breath, covering his eyes with his hand in embarrassment and trying to ignore the strange looks being given off by the rest of the students on-deck.

"Hey, Takashi!" Izumi called down to him, "Let's do the trust test!"

"The what?" Takashi looked up with a raised eyebrow, and was surprised to see that Izumi was facing directly opposite him, and slowly tipping backwards. Takashi's eyes bulged from his head for a moment, and he instinctively held out his arms to catch her as she fell down to him. Izumi let out a whoop of glee as she fell onto him, and he almost fell over as he caught her full weight. He barely managed to remain standing, with Izumi's body leaning against his and the back of her head resting against his shoulder.

Izumi giggled for a second or two more, then turned her head to look at him. Her eyes narrowed, and she grinned mischievously before saying, in a very teasing tone, "Nice catch, lover boy."

Takashi rolled his eyes and promptly pulled his arms out from under her, leaving her to fall clumsily to the deck with a yelp as he walked away. Izumi quickly jumped to her feet and sped after him, "Oh, come on, Takashi! It was just a joke… Wait for me!" She caught up to him just before he reached the buffet table, and grabbed a plate from it at random before piling on an assortment of sandwiches and snacks. Duelist Academy's colors- red, yellow, and blue- were those of the paper plates, which caused Takashi to suddenly muse for a few moments.

"I wonder what dorms we'll end up in," he pondered aloud, catching Izumi's attention, "there's really no way of knowing, I guess, and we should know in a few hours anyway. Still, for some reason I'm curious."

"Well, I don't know too much about the dorms," Izumi joined in, while pulling her hair back up into its ponytail. "I just know that there're three of them- the lowest is Osiris Red, then there's Ra Yellow in the middle, and the best is Obelisk Blue."

The young duelists' attention was suddenly drawn to an older-looking student who had just walked up to the buffet table and was chuckling good-naturedly. "First years, I take it?" he inquired, picking up a cracker from the table and tossing it into his mouth. He was relatively well-dressed: he wore a white buttoned and collared shirt with a loose black tie, couple with a sharp pair of black slacks. He wore a pair of glasses perched in front of a set of dazzling brown eyes, and his long black hair was drawn back into a tail that trailed beyond his shoulders. When he received a pair of affirmative nods, he continued, "I'm in my third year at the academy, so I know quite a bit about the place. Would you like me to give you an explanation of the division of dorms?"

"That'd be nice," responded Izumi, who, Takashi noted with a raised eyebrow, suddenly was holding a plate carrying a pile of food significantly taller than the one on Takashi's plate.

The older student nodded, and turned to the buffet table once again. With a few rapid movements of his arms, he claimed a large number of small snack items- crackers, cheese cubes, and shrimp- as well as four plates from the layout. "This will be easier to explain with a visual representation," he explained, placing all of the food onto one of the plates and in doing so categorizing them. Meanwhile, he laid out the remaining three plates- one red, one yellow, and one blue- on an empty space on the table. "Okay," he began, "let's say that these little bits are students. The crackers are first years, the cheese cubes are second years, and the third years are shrimp. Each piece of food represents ten students." He paused, and pointed at the three empty plates, "These three are the different dorms- Osiris Red, Ra Yellow, and Obelisk Blue. The five hundred students at Duelist Academy are relatively evenly divided across the years, as well as the three dorms. Obviously it's impossibly to wholly divide five hundred by three, so let's just say that there are forty-eight pieces of food, meaning we've got sixteen of each. You with me so far?"

Takashi's calm, confident nod was almost completely ruined by Izumi's blank stare and mumble of, "Um…"

"He's rounding," Takashi offered.

"Oh…okay!"

The older student smiled, and continued his presentation. "Alright, the first thing we've got to consider is the Academy's junior high academy. It's a very expensive prep school with a student population of only one hundred and fifty across three years, meaning fifty students in each graduating class." He picked up five crackers from the main plate, and held them up for Takashi and Izumi to note. "Out of the fifty students, about twenty of the highest-performing are chosen to Obelisk Blue. These are the _only_ first-year students that will be admitted into the Obelisk Blue dorm at the start of the year." He placed the two crackers on the blue plate, and then the remaining three in his hand on the yellow plate, "Except for a very few exceptional cases, the remaining thirty or so students are admitted to Ra Yellow. It's extremely rare for a student to perform well enough to graduate the prep school but poorly enough to be sent to Osiris Red."

He cleared his throat before continuing. "Now, the remaining eleven crackers, or one hundred and ten first-year students, are the ones who got into Duelist Academy purely on the merit they earned in the entrance exam- that's you guys." At this final comment, Izumi's interest seemed to peak, and she leaned in a bit closer so as to catch all of what he said next. "Now, the division of prep and non-prep first-year Ra Yellows is only slightly slanted," he said, placing two more crackers on the yellow plate, "so a little less than a quarter of the students you tested with will get into Ra Yellow. The remainders will be stuck in the lowest dorm- Osiris Red." He acted out the placement with the crackers. As it stood, the first-year class consisted of ninety students in Osiris Red, fifty in Ra Yellow, and twenty in Obelisk Blue.

"It seems that prep students receive quite an advantage in their placement," Takashi commented. "A virtually guaranteed placement in at least Ra Yellow, and a high probability of being placed in a higher dorm than any given non-prep student."

The older student nodded, smiling pleasantly, "Yes, well, money can help you get to a lot of places. But things change a little bit for sophomores. Watch…" With that, he repositioned the cheese cubes from their current position to various spots amongst the three plates. When he was finished, five sat on the red plate, seven on the yellow, and four on the blue. "The Osiris Red population halves, and Obelisk Blue nearly always doubles. The change continues on through the final year…" as he spoke the final sentence, he tossed the shrimp on the plates as well- two on the red, five on the yellow, and nine on the blue.

"I see…" Takashi murmured, now cupping his chin in his hand, "the uneven distribution among dorms during the first year allows a majority of the students to reach the highest dorm by their final year at the Academy, while also complying with the equal overall distribution across all three years."

"…Huh?" Izumi looked somewhat lost, "All I get is that there are a whole bunch of crackers in Osiris Red…"

The older student seemed to ignore her comment, and instead nodded his head at Takashi's. "That is indeed correct. What is unfortunate is that there are always some students which are never able to move beyond Osiris Red- they remain stagnant, and when they graduate, lose virtually all chance of dueling professionally, which is the reason that an overwhelming majority of the students come to the Academy." He sighed, and suddenly flipped the contents of the three colored plates onto a single one, and picked it up. "Well, I must be off now. I must prepare for our landing, and in the meantime enjoy this snack…" He nodded his head at the two younger duelists, then turned and left without another word.

Takashi and Izumi stared after his departing form for a few moments, before Izumi spoke up, "Um…did he even tell us his name?"

"I…don't believe so," Takashi replied, before he shook his head and started walking away as well. "I'll see you in a little while, Izumi."

"Hm?" Izumi questioned, unable to articulate much more before she swallowed the mouthful of food preventing her from making any vowel sounds. With a gulp, she continued, "Where are you going?"

"To one of the rooms," Takashi answered, "I need to get out of the open, have a little privacy…"

"Cool, I'll come with you!" Izumi exclaimed happily, and jumped after the boy before he turned and placed a hand on her head to press her back.

"Privacy _alone_, Izumi," he clarified, and she pouted in response before he turned and resumed his walk.

* * *

It was some time later that day when the cruise ship docked at its destination. Before long, Takashi, Izumi, and the other students had been herded off the cruise ship, and onto the vast grounds of Duelist Academy. A group of people wearing the orange uniforms of the academy's staff members shouted out instructions to the students, separating the first-year students from their sophomore and senior counterparts. Their group soon joined with a few more new arrivals, and together they were marched towards the Duelist Academy's main building. Takashi noticed that many of the students surrounding him, including Izumi, were gazing around at the island's sights in awe. A few quick glances later, and Takashi could see why. The island's lush lands, the view of the surrounding ocean, and the large, quiet volcano in the distance made the land mass seem quite beautiful.

Takashi turned his attention to the students themselves, mentally tallying them up. He couldn't keep track of them all, due to their constantly shifting position and his making sure not to trip over anyone, but he estimated that there were approximately one hundred fifty students in all- about what the senior with glasses had told him earlier. The students shortly found themselves walking into a large dueling arena, far more impressive than the arena where applicants had tested roughly a week ago. Takashi could see an elderly man wearing a purple coat standing at the center of the arena, and some distance behind him several people in orange uniforms were sitting at a long desk. "I wonder what this is all about…?" Takashi wondered aloud.

"They're welcoming us," Izumi answered, snapping Takashi out of his daze. "Actually, it's really more of a way of buying time."

"What do you mean?" Takashi further questioned, as they took seats with the other students in the bleachers, relatively close to the arena.

"They have to get our bags and stuff to our rooms," Izumi explained, "so that bald guy's gonna talk to us for a few minutes, so we can just get our rooms assigned, and have our stuff waiting for us. Oh, and you see the papers sitting on that table there?" she extended a finger to point at the table where the orange-uniformed workers were sitting. Sure enough, Takashi could see if her peered closely that each worker had a stack of paper positioned in front of them. "Those are probably our dorm and room assignments, maybe with maps so we can find our way around. It doesn't like they've got uniforms and stuff like that, so they're probably already in our rooms."

Takashi considered this for a moment, then spoke again, "Well, it seems reasonable. But how do you figure all that?"

Izumi looked up at him with a grin, and replied smartly, "Women's intuition." Takashi rolled his eyes, and turned his attention to the elderly man, who was clearing his throat to address the students.

"Hello, hello, first-year students of Duelist Academy!" he called, in a voice that seemed fatigued by age but nevertheless warm and authoritative, "Welcome to the premier school for teenage duelists! I am your principal, Professor Hiroshi Akai, and I hope that you all have a wonderful time at my academy." He raised his hands into the air, as if to embrace the whole of them in his arms, and continued, "It is my duty as principal to ensure that you all receive adequate instruction and care, so that you may live comfortably during your three years here as well as become well-educated individuals in addition to developing your dueling skills. I have witnessed the skills of many of you already, having judged the majority of your entrance exams, and personally look forward to the time I spend with each and every one of you." He lowered his hands, and clasped them together behind his back. His lips, which to this point had been curled into a hospitable smile, drooped very slightly into a small grin of anticipation, before opening to allow him to speak his next few sentences. "In a few short moments, you will be assigned to one of the academy's three dorms, along with your current class and school ranking. However, I want you all to know that no matter your ranking, I have the utmost confidence in your potential. All of you have the ability to achieve great success. To those few of you who are assigned to Obelisk Blue, I give my congratulations, and hope that you do not allow this to drag you into the dangerous cavern of complacency- always continue to drive yourself towards your goals, and never be fully satisfied. For you slightly more numerous Ra Yellows, I assure you that clinging to the middle of the mountain is far less satisfying than standing triumphant on its summit. Reaching the top is a very fulfilling experience- never give up your climb no matter how far your journey thus far or the journey still ahead may seem. And to those assigned to Osiris Red…do not despair! Although you are at the bottom rung of our academy, it is not so bad to be the worst of the best. Do not look upon your placement as a failure, but rather as an opportunity to improve yourself and rise to meet or even surpass your peers!"

Hiroshi took a breath, allowing his comments to sink into his seemingly enraptured audience. "There are some other items that I would like to address," he said, in a suddenly much lighter tone, "stuff about rules and disciplinary policy and whatnot. But my co-workers have assured me that such things are covered by the content on the personal devices you will be receiving, and they want me to keep things short and simple here. You see, they think it's bad if I talk for too long, as I tend to lose focus and eventually go off on long tangents that-" He was suddenly cut off by the sound of one of the workers loudly clearing her throat. Hiroshi blinked, then said, "Right then, please see the young men and women behind me for your room and dorm assignments. And do try not to hurt anyone in the process." His last words fell on deaf ears as dozens of students had already started stampeding out of the bleachers and across the arena in the direction of the tables. Hiroshi smiled to himself and began humming tunelessly as he walked off.

After experiencing some degree of elbowing, shoving, and tripping, Takashi emerged from the horde of new students clutching a piece of paper, which had been shoved in his face as soon as he had told one of the workers his name. After putting some distance between himself and the crowd, he took a calming breath, and felt at the area of his chest just below his neck through his shirt. _'Yeah, still there…'_ he assured himself, before turning his attention to the paper in his other hand. The paper featured his name, along with several of his vitals and a picture of his face, which had been taken following his entrance exam. Just underneath this, there was a room number, and a ranking. Takashi blinked, and double-checked the statistic, reading it aloud. "Class rank: 24. School rank: 232. Dorm:…Ra Yellow." A slight smile curved across his face, "Didn't think I did _that_ well…not that I'm complaining."

"Hey Takashi," he turned to look at Izumi, who had come up behind him, "How'd you do?"

"Ra Yellow," he said simply, turning the paper around so that she could see it. Unexpectedly, this brought a slightly sad smile to Izumi's face, which caught Takashi's attention. "You okay?"

"Sorta…" Izumi replied, holding up the paper she had been given. "Seventy-ninth in the class, three hundred ninety-first in the school. I'm going to Osiris Red." She lowered the paper, and also lowered her gaze from Takashi's face to stare at her shoes for a few seconds.

Takashi placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, slightly surprising Izumi and drawing her head back up to look at him. "Hey, don't worry about it," he told her, "it's just a color. You're about a hundred fifty ranks behind me, so that just means you'll have to catch up, right? Besides, you're already ahead of about a hundred other students, including about half our year."

"Yeah, I know, but…" Izumi still smiled slightly, "I just kinda hoped we could be in the same dorm. You're the only friend I've got at the academy right now, and-"

"Okay, cut it out," Takashi interrupted her, removing his hand from her shoulder and looking down at her seriously, "seeing someone like you get all depressed is starting to drag me down. Come on, what happened to the enthusiastic, crazy, annoying girl brimming with self-confidence who wouldn't stop talking about how awesome she was? I'm not going to talk to you anymore if you don't get out of this funk, and I mean right now."

There were a few seconds of silence, as the two simply stood, Izumi not responding to his warning and Takashi not willing to add onto it. Then Takashi felt a crushing, suffocating feeling, and realized Izumi was firmly clamped about his torso again. He struggled feebly to breathe for a few moments, gave up, and instead tapped her shoulder to catch her attention. Izumi released her grip, and Takashi gasped for air. "Thanks, Takashi," she said gratefully, smiling slightly. Then her smile warped into a grin, as she grabbed his hand and dashed out of the arena, happily shouting, "Now let's find our rooms!"

* * *

Takashi stood in front of his room, double-checking the number on the paper assigned to him with the one on the front door. "I guess this is it…" he muttered to himself, tearing off the key that had been firmly taped to the sheet of paper. After unlocking the door, he cracked it open and peered into the dimly-lit room. "Weird," he said aloud, "you'd think they'd put a light on or something." He stepped inside, and saw that the only illumination available was being provided by the small amount of sunlight creeping around the edges of a blind, which was strung over a window at the opposite end of the room. Takashi sighed to himself, as the door behind him closed, and stepped carefully across to the window. With a single tug on the bottom of the fabric, the blind jerked up, allowing light to flood the room.

"Hey," a voice behind Takashi rang out, causing him to jerk violently in surprise and whirl about, "why the hell did you do that? What do you think I had it down for in the first place?"

Takashi blinked, his eyes adjusting to the difference in light, and took in the room. The room contained three beds- one positioned on either side of the window, and a third across from it, though a fair distance away from the door. On this bed sat a pale-skinned teenager with long, greasy black hair that hung over his eyes. He was dressed in baggy black pants and a sleeveless black shirt, and numerous straps were buckled around his bare arms. He was clutching a portable music player in one hand, and a pair of headphones were slung around his neck, blasting music at a volume that Takashi only just noticed at this distance. Takashi wondered how he could possibly have not noticed the teen on his way in, but…realized there was something very odd about him. Besides his dark clothing, the boy seemed almost to be exuding an air of darkness about himself. It was as if he were sitting in a dark corner, rather than on a brightly-lit mattress.

"Uh…" Takashi managed, realizing that the teen was staring at him, although he couldn't see his eyes. Then he processed what the other had said, and slowly worked out an actual word, "Sorry?"

The dark-clothed teen grumbled to himself angrily, in what Takashi quickly realized was English, although the words he was using were unfamiliar to him. He recognized something along the lines of "'Sorry,' he says. Why do I get a…" and little more than that. Eventually, the teen pulled his headphones up over his ears, leaned back against the wall, and said, "Whatever. 'Least I get control of the switch." He reached up and flicked a switch on the wall he was leaning against, turning on the ceiling lamp.

Although Takashi had been brought up being told that at this moment, introductions would be the proper step, he realized that his new roommate would not likely believe the same. Hence, he decided to forego that matter for the time-being, and instead turned his attention to something he hadn't noticed before- his bags, and someone else's, were piled up in one corner of the room, along with three yellow boxes. He approached the pile, grabbed his bags, and heaved them up onto one of the available beds, before inspecting the box that was labeled with his name. Within, he found a yellow uniform, as well as a sleek new Duel Disk and a PDA emblazoned with the academy's logo. Takashi took a moment to look at the uniform, then scanned the room, and soon noticed a door that led into a bathroom. "Might as well get changed…" he muttered to himself, picking up the uniform and heading into the bathroom.

Several minutes later, he emerged, carrying his old clothes. The uniform consisted of a yellow jacket that buckled at its white collar, with slick black pants and yellow shoes. He folded up his old clothes, and placed them next to his bags before fiddling with the collar. "Too tight…" he complained, before simply undoing it and letting the jacket hang open loosely, exposing the white shirt he had been wearing earlier that day. He glanced at the black-clothed teen, but his roommate was currently ignoring him, headphones blaring. Takashi turned his attention to his bags, and decided he should begin unpacking.

Suddenly, the door was kicked in with a loud BANG! And a teenager bounded into the room, his blue jacket flapping out slightly behind him. He landed in the center of the room, and threw up the paper he had been carrying into the air with a cry of, "Haha! Happily express your tremendous gratitude, my friends, for you have been blessed with the privilege of sharing a room with the great Jin Tsukimaru!" After this, he planted his hands at his hips and posed dramatically, his face sculpted into a confident smirk. The moment was ruined, however, when the paper he had tossed up finally floated down and planted itself firmly over his face.

As Jin clawed at his face distressfully, Takashi raised his eyes to gaze upwards. _'Are all the people I meet here going to be completely insane?'_ he wondered, before standing up and swiping the paper off of Jin's nose. "Hi," he greeted, "I'm Takashi Kasei. Good to meet you."

"Yes, yes it is," Jin agreed, "I can tell we are going to have a good stay together, Takashi, for you seem to have a personality that would appreciate my great sense of culture!"

Takashi raised an eyebrow, "O…kay."

"Ah, and who have we here?" Jin questioned, turning his attention to the room's third occupant, who was still leaning against the wall with his headphones on, though Takashi noted that one of his ears had been freed from the headset and his head was tilted in their direction. Jin stepped forward, and offered his hand for a customary shake. "I am Jin Tsukimaru, genius of culture and elegance. May I ask your name, or do you keep it hidden as well as your eyes? Heck, it's like you've hidden them in a jungle or something."

Takashi's ear twitched, and he noticed that the third roommate's headphones were no longer emitting sound. The dark-haired teen's head twitched slightly, enough so that his bangs fell away from his eyes, and Takashi took an involuntary step back. The teen's eyes were an amazing shade of violent crimson, and the look he was giving Jin looked hateful enough to kill.

"Come on," Jin egged on, "I've never been good at foreign language, and I certainly never took a course in 'dead silence.' Tell me, what is your name?" He extended an arm out to slap the teen's shoulder, and Takashi immediately realized that this gesture was an incredibly stupid mistake.

The pale teenager's hand shot out, and grabbed the extended forearm. Jin looked momentarily surprised and confused, but this expression was replaced by one of incredible pain as the pale teen began to apply pressure, gripping with far more power than would be expected from his thin arms. "_Don't_…touch me," the pale teen warned after a few moments of silence, before releasing Jin with a shove backwards. He stumbled, and tripped over one of the yellow boxes before collapsing to the floor.

Jin looked up, between his legs at the yellow box, and, seeing that his name was on it, announced, "Ah, I think I'll be changing into my uniform now!" He jumped to his feet, grabbed the box, and escaped into the bathroom.

Takashi, whose eyes had gone wide in surprise, calmed down, and he sat at the foot of the bed he had tossed his bags onto. There were a good six feet between he and the other teenager, which Takashi felt established a sense of personal space. "So…" he said hesitantly, adopting a calm, respectful tone, "what is your name?"

The teen's bangs parted again, and he stared at Takashi with those blood-red eyes. Takashi stared calmly back, and the pale teen's gaze grew steadily more neutral. They looked at each that way for several seconds, until Takashi got his response. "Gnash," was all he said.

Takashi blinked. "Is that your real name?" he questioned.

Gnash's gaze grew a bit more challenging, "Yes. And don't forget that."

Takashi was spared further confrontation when Jin kicked the bathroom door in and marched out confidently, wearing his uniform's pants and shoes and carrying the jacket. With a flourish, he slip his arms through the jacket's sleeves, and cast it about his back, then ran both hands through his slicked-back silver hair before straightening the yellow blazer. "Ah, this uniform suits me!" he cried enthusiastically, "So crisp! So sleek! So…_elegant!_ I love it!" He turned his blue eyes to look at Gnash, "Really, why aren't _you_ wearing yours?"

He started to back off when his blue eyes were met with Gnash's red ones, but the pale student nevertheless answered. "Yellow's not my color," he replied simply.

"Well, you'll have to wear it eventually," Jin replied with a shrug, "school rules and all that. Now, to set up my living space!" He grabbed a few bags from the pile, and deposited them on the floor between the beds. "Hm…the ideal placement would be as far from the window as possible," he said aloud to himself, but a simple glance at Gnash's glaring form scratched out that option. After a few moments, he turned to the bed that Takashi was sitting on, and addressed the other Ra Yellow. "Takashi, would you mind relenting that bed?"

"Uh…" Takashi looked at him for a moment, then looked at the free bed opposite his. "Why not take the other one?"

"Very simple," Jin answered matter-of-factly, "you see, the window between these two beds," he swept an arm in the direction of the window, "faces roughly east-northeast. Therefore, when the sun rises in the east, light will filter through the blind, directly into the eyes of its occupant." He stooped his head suddenly, gazing at the ground in despair, "Such an interruption to sleep would be an immense tragedy for one such as myself, who takes great pleasure in resting." He flip his head up and made eye-contact with Takashi, "Therefore, I ask you to spare me from this burden, so that I may rise to meet the day as I please! You know what they say, the early bird gets the worm, but the late bird gets to laugh at the early birds that get shot down by hunters who get up early!"

Takashi stared in confusion at the blue eyes that were shimmering vibrantly in front of him. "That doesn't make any sense," he finally said.

"It does so!" Jin protested, "It means that the person who takes action first gets things done quickly, but the one who takes their time doesn't make any of the mistakes of the first!"

"Of course it does," Takashi relented, "but I'm still not giving up the bed. I like sleeping as well."

"Oh, come on!" Jin complained, "You're being unreasonable!"

"And you're being a drama king," Takashi replied, "but we all have our flaws."

"Will you two shut up?" spoke up Gnash from his position on his bed, his headphones now secured over both his ears and pounding away again, "I can almost make out what you're saying."

Jin threw a scowl in Gnash's direction, but quickly turned his attention back to Takashi. "We should settle this like proper Duelist Academy students," he proposed, "We should settle this like duelists!"

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Takashi replied with a roll of his eyes, "you want to duel over something as stupid as sleeping positions?"

"Are you saying you refuse to compete, in which case I automatically claim victory and the spoils of the bed?" Jin demanded.

Takashi sighed, "Fine, if that's the way you want things to be…"

* * *

There was certainly not enough space to hold a duel in their room, so Takashi and Jin moved to the lobby of the Ra Yellow dorm to hold their match. "I'm glad you chose to accept my challenge," Jin stated with a smirk, activating his new Duel Disk (Jin LP: 4000), "this will give me an opportunity to compare my abilities to those of one of my fellow students."

"I can see your point," Takashi returned, drawing his opening hand of six cards (Takashi LP: 4000), "so long as you aren't disappointed with the results of your assessment. I'll start things off with a card facedown, and summoning Soul of Submission (1500/1200) in defense mode." The two cards appeared one after the other, one a simple brown-backed card facing the ground and the other another of Takashi's semi-transparent Souls. This one was a young woman, who was kneeling on the ground with her hands clasped before her. She was garbed in a modest white dress.

"Such a simple opening move," Jin commented, "I will show you how to make a far more magnificent play!" He snapped a sixth card from the top of his deck, and glanced over his cards before playing one of them. "I open with Ruren-Elf Lancer (1700/1500)!" Jin's monster was a slim humanoid, with long, shimmering hair and pointed ears. Ruren was covered in light armor, and bore a long, white lance in his right hand with a shield in the other. "And now to call upon the magnificent power of music!" Jin declared, slipping a second card into his Duel Disk, "Elf Song-Ballad of Honor permanently increases the attack of all Elves on my field by five hundred, and prevents their attacks from being negated for this turn!" From nowhere, the sound of an orchestra playing filled the room, and Ruren's chest expanded with confidence (2200/1500).

Takashi eyed the pumped-up Elf warily, and said, "You must have a reason for increasing your monster's attack points to that level and making sure its attack will hit."

"Perceptive," Jin complimented with a grin, "Ruren can deal damage through defense, so he'll attack Soul of Submission!" The slim warrior dashed forward, lance held ready. As Ruren approached, Takashi's Soul merely closed her eyes and held perfectly still, until the lance pierced straight through her chest. She did not cry out, and simply faded away. Jin was slightly confused when he didn't hear the familiar trickling of life points. After briefly checking that Takashi's set card had not activated, he questioned, "Why haven't you taken any damage?"

"Quite simple," Takashi responded, "Soul of Submission prevents me from taking any damage when she battles. Therefore, Ruren's ability was effectively made useless."

Jin frowned, "Very well. My turn is done."

Takashi nodded, and snapped a card from his deck, adding it to his hand before playing another. "I play Soul Transfusion," he declared, as an ethereal glow rose from his graveyard, "by removing a Soul in my graveyard from the game, I can summon one of a lower level from my deck." A dark-clothed, somber-looking human faded into existence on his field. "Soul of Submission is a level four monster, therefore I can summon the level three Soul of Depression (800/1200) from my deck," he declared, "and when Soul of Depression is face-up, he lowers the attack and defense of all opposing monsters by four hundred." A dark, oppressive aura transcended from the Soul's person, and curled itself around Ruren (1800/1100), who let out a depressed sigh. Takashi fingered another card in his hand before replacing the Soul of Depression with it on his Duel Disk, "I sacrifice Soul of Depression to summon Soul of Compassion (2100/1500)." Like most of the Souls, Compassion was humanoid in form and somewhat insubstantial. She was garbed in flowing red robes, and angelic white wings extended from her back, allowing her to hover a few inches above the ground; a warm pink aura was emitting from her entire body.

Jin's brow furrowed a bit in confusion, as Ruren returned to his original power (2200/1500). "Well, that was somewhat counter-productive," he commented.

Takashi smirked slightly in response. "It would have been, if not for Compassion's effect," he stated, as the angelic Soul extended her arms to either side of her body, and the Soul of Depression reappeared immediately in front of her in a flash of light. "She summons the monster sacrificed to summon her upon reaching the field," Takashi explained, as Compassion placed her hands on Depression's sagged shoulders comfortingly, though his gaze remained lowered. "I'll place Depression in defense mode, since he can't attack, and then have Compassion go on the attack!" The angelic woman extended an arm towards Ruren (1800/1100), who once again appeared saddened due to Depression's influence. The elf looked up at her, and briefly smiled in response to her offered hand, and reached out for it just before disappeared serenely in a burst of light (Jin LP: 3700).

Jin swallowed briefly, and swiftly drew. His opening hand, outside of the combo he had used to launch the duel's first assault, had been decidedly sub-par. Luckily, he had a method of bringing in new resources. "I summon Kist-Elf Craftsman (500/200)-(100/0)!" he declared, as another Elf appeared in front of him before he slid two cards from the top of his deck, "When summoned in attack mode while I have no other monsters on the field, Kist lets me draw two cards!"

"Meaning you have a full hand of six cards," Takashi observed, "well, I guess I'll just have to take advantage of your Elf being in attack mode. I activate my facedown card, Raw Emotion-Unbridled Rage!" The card that Takashi had set on his field at the very beginning of the duel now tipped up, revealing itself to be a quickplay spell card. Immediately, the Soul of Compassion became covered by an burning orange aura, and her sympathetic expression warped into one of anger. "Unbridled Rage can only be activated when both of us have a monster on the field," Takashi stated, "it increases the attack of one face-up monster on the field by five hundred for the duration of the turn (Soul of Compassion: 2600/1500) and forces it to attack immediately!"

Jin gasped as the now infuriated angel spread her wings and dove like a hawk at the weak Kist. He instinctively jerked one of the cards he had just drawn into his Duel Disk, and suddenly Compassion became only half her full size. "Activate Shrink, which cuts your monster's base attack in half for the duration of the turn!" Although Kist still received a swipe from the Soul of Compassion (1550/1500), resulting in his destruction, the blow to Jin's life points was significantly decreased (Jin LP: 2250). The silver-haired Ra Yellow took a few calming breaths, and then offered Takashi a smirk. "This is a much greater challenge than the entrance exam…I'm not even sure if the instructor ever got my life points this low at all, let alone by the fourth turn."

Without hesitation, Jin slipped a card into his Duel Disk, and another song began playing in the background, one that Jin noted was much softer than the previous one. "I play Elf Song-Prelude of Light, which will revive one Elf from my graveyard!" In a brilliant burst of light, Ruren reappeared, hefting his lance (1700/1500)-(1300/1100). "Ruren, attack Soul of Depression!" Although slightly weakened, Ruren lowered his lance and charged the Soul, who showed no visible reaction when his chest was pierced by the weapon. Jin smirked when his opponent took damage this time (Takashi LP: 3900). "With Depression's influence removed," Jin stated, "Ruren returns to his original level of power (1700/1500). I conclude my turn by placing one card facedown."

Takashi drew, while the aura surrounding his Soul of Compassion (2100/1500) vanished, and she returned to her original size. "I summon Soul of Courage (1400/1200)," Takashi declared, as the red-armored Soul appeared next to his Soul of Compassion. "Now, Soul of Courage will attack Ruren," Takashi continued, and the warrior drew his sword and charged with a battle cry. Takashi immediately slid three cards from his deck and placed them in his graveyard, "Because Soul of Courage is battling a monster with a higher attack than himself, I can activate his effect to discard up to three cards from the top of my deck to the graveyard, and increase his attack and defense by three hundred per discarded card until the end of the turn (2300/2100)."

Jin nodded in understanding following this explanation, and punched a button on his Duel Disk. "If that's the case, I activate my facedown card," the declared card tipped up, revealing itself to be a trap, and immediately Ruren began to perform an exotic dance. As the Lancer gracefully leapt and spun, the charging Soul of Courage struck and missed with a clumsy swing of his sword. "Haha!" Jin shouted in triumph and a pump of his fist, "Elegant Moon Dance is the perfect representation of my dueling spirit! My monsters and strategy are the epitome of elegance and culture, and this amazing combination cannot hope to be defeated by a bulky and classless opposition, for their headstrong and clumsy methods will be rendered useless! In itself, Elegant Moon Dance negates all attacks against my Elves for the duration of the turn."

Takashi looked calmly at Jin's face, which had contorted into an expression of excitement and anticipation. _'This isn't about a stupid bed to him anymore,'_ he realized, setting a single card facedown and announcing the action, _'he's completely focused just on dueling me now, regardless of his original reason for challenging me. I could really get used to having this guy around…'_ "I end my turn with that."

"At the end of the turn Elegant Moon Dance is activated," Jin stated, "I draw one card." He quickly jerked at his deck twice, signaling the beginning of his turn. After looking over his new cards, he grinned widely, "And now it's time to strike back! I discard a card from my hand to activate Elf Song-Requiem of the Moon!" A third song began to play, this one a melodious, almost seductive tune.

Takashi glanced about the field to scan for the card's visual effect, and was shocked when he noticed that his Soul of Compassion was covering her ears, seeming almost in agony from listening to the song. "What's going on?" he questioned.

Jin smirked, as the angelic woman calmed, and removed her hands from her ears…revealing them to be pointed, like those of an Elf. "Requiem of the Moon adds 'Elf' to the title of one opposing monster…and then places that monster under my control!" the Soul of Compassion spread her wings, and hovered across the field before taking her place next to Ruren, now facing against Takashi. "I also summon Serath-Elf Striker (1400/1800)!" a third Elf appeared on the field, slightly shorter than Ruren and bearing a chain in favor of the Lancer's bulkier arms.

Takashi felt the tension in his body release. Even with the Soul of Compassion under Jin's control, his Soul of Courage could not be defeated by any of his opponent's monsters in battle. Takashi momentarily wondered if his opponent had simply overlooked this, but this hopeful thought vanished when Jin played another card, and a light, building tune began to sound. "I play Elf Song-Rhapsody of Light!" Jin declared, as Ruren's body began to glow vibrantly, "I select a number of Elves on my field, and they cannot attack this turn. In exchange, I then destroy an equal number of opposing monsters!" Suddenly, the music shifted dramatically, from soft and light to loud and tumultuous, and a burst of light shot from Ruren into the Soul of Courage, causing the warrior to explode violently.

"I activate my facedown card," Takashi declared, the single remaining card on his field flipping up, bathing him in a pink glow, "Raw Emotion-Warm Sympathy allows me to draw one card for every two levels of a destroyed Soul. Soul of Courage is a level four, therefore his destruction lets me draw two cards." He calmly tugged the declared number of cards from his deck.

"Excellent! Even in the face of my overwhelming force, you find a way to make the best of a situation!" Jin laughed happily, and cast an arm out, "Still, I will take advantage of your lack of defense. Serath, Elf Soul of Compassion, attack directly!" Takashi grimaced, as the shorter Elf lashed out, striking the teen across the face with his metal chain. Takashi was then surprised when Serath continued the assault, whipping the chain about his ankle and yanking it, tripping him and forcing him to the ground. "When Serath attacks, he automatically deals three hundred damage to my opponent," Jin stated, as the Soul of Compassion floated towards he original master and embraced him about his shoulders, before helping him to his feet. This caught the silver-haired duelist slightly off-guard, and he rubbed the back of his head in slight curiosity, "She certainly has a strange way of attacking. Oh well, at least it's effective…" (Takashi LP: 100).

As the newly Elven Soul of Compassion hovered back to his field, Jin set a card into his Duel Disk. "I set one more card facedown on my field before ending my turn," he stated, before spreading his arms outward invitingly, "Now, come and meet me in battle, Takashi Kasei! Face my elegant Elves with your emotions, and let out dueling souls clash with our full passion and strength! Only then can I feel at my best, can I feel my most alive!"

Takashi smirked slightly in response at his roommate, and drew a card. "Alright, Jin," he stated, glancing over his hand and formulating a plan, "I'll do my best to meet your request. To start things off, I play Mystical Space Typhoon, to destroy your facedown card!" Jin grimaced as the widely-played card took effect, ripping apart his facedown trap. "To follow that up, I discard a card from my hand to activate the spell card Spirit Crush, which destroys one card in play," Takashi continued rapidly, lowering the number of cards in his hand to just two as the Soul of Compassion suddenly cried out in pained shock, and burst apart.

The angelic Soul's destruction brought a confused expression to Jin's face. "You destroyed your own monster? Why would you do that?"

Takashi rolled his eyes, "For one, I'm not quite as sympathetic as some other duelists. I recognize the fact that Compassion had turned on me, and I had to treat her as an enemy. Besides that, her destruction helps me out for this next move." He set a card on his Duel Disk, and a young, transparent male figure appeared in front of him. He wore black jeans and a tight black shirt, and was completely bald. "I summon Soul of Fury (800/800)," Takashi introduced.

"…What's he do?" Jin inquired after a moment, looking at the monster's weak attack score cautiously.

"I'm glad you asked that," Takashi stated, as suddenly the bald Soul's head caught on fire, a brilliant orange flame setting upon his scalp as he yelled in anger. "For each Soul that has been destroyed in the current duel, Soul of Fury gains a Fury counter when he is summoned- a total of four including Compassion's destruction." The Soul of Fury raised his fists into the air, and a quartet of fireballs erupted from his arms, and began encircling his form. "For each counter, Fury gains four hundred attack and defense points (2400/2400)!" Takashi yelled, and with a wave of his arm the Soul leapt forward, all four fireballs crashing into his body and setting it aflame. With a single burning arm, he struck a powerful blow into Ruren's gut, sending the Elf flying backwards (Jin LP: 1550).

The mighty display brought an ecstatic grin to Jin's face. "Wonderful!" he exclaimed, "This is exactly what I was talking about! The burning passion of both duelists, raging in a storm of magnificent power from which only one can emerge victorious! I will enjoy trying to cut down this new force." He reached for his deck, but was cut off and surprised by Takashi's comment.

"It's not over," Takashi declared, and suddenly the fire surrounding his Soul's body split apart into their original four orbiting balls. As the fireballs whirled about him, the Soul of Fury caught two in his bare hands, "By removing two counters from Soul of Fury (1600/1600), I can have him attack again. Go!" The Soul of Fury slammed both handfuls of fire together, resulting in a blast of fire that incinerated Serath before dissipating (Jin LP: 1350). "Once more (Soul of Fury: 800/800)! Attack directly!" With a final yell of rage, the Soul complied, snatching both remaining fireballs out of the air and unleashing another wave of flame that knocked Jin clean off his feet (Jin LP: 550). With the assault finally concluded, the Soul of Fury panted wearily, and the flame crowning his head dissipated. Takashi emptied his hand by setting his final remaining card into his Duel Disk, "I set one card facedown, and that will end my turn."

With his temples slightly damp with sweat, Jin drew, forced to topdeck. Thankfully, his drawn card would certainly help him out of this situation, "I play the permanent spell, Blessings of the Forest Goddess. This card comes into play with three counters, and gains an additional counter each time one of my Elves destroys an opposing monster in battle. I may sacrifice three counters in order to draw two cards, and I think I'll do so now." Immediately he pulled another two cards from his deck, and silently sighed in relief for having drawn a useful monster. "I summon Aresth-Elf Swordmaster (2000/1200)!" he exclaimed, a tall, buff-looking Elf wielding a broadsword appearing before him. "Aresth will finish it," Jin declared, "attack the Soul of Fury!"

Takashi wasted no time in reacting, "I activate my facedown card: Raw Emotion-Pure Delight!" A shimmering, green barrier erected itself between the impeding Aresth and the Soul of Fury. "Pure Delight negates one attack and increases my life points by the attack points of the attacking monster." His eyes widened, however, when Aresth merely let out a battle cry and smashed through the barrier before impaling the Soul of Fury on his sword.

Jin smirked slightly as he watched this happen. "Aresth's attack cannot be negated," he stated somewhat braggingly, "however, all damage dealt to your life points is halved. Unfortunately, his effect cannot stop you from gaining life points, either." Takashi nodded in understanding, as his life points sky-rocketed, then took a slight dip before finally settling (Takashi LP: 1500). Jin grinned, as he placed his final remaining card into his Duel Disk and music once again began to play. "I have a feeling that this duel will end soon, Takashi Kasei, and I fully intend to be the one to end it. As of right now, I do not possess the means to do so, but I promise that I will use all of my skill and strength to bring about this end on my next turn! In the meantime, I'll simply set a buffer on my life points by playing Elf Song-Serendae of Joy, which grants me one thousand life points, plus an additional one hundred for each Elf on my field (Jin LP: 1650). Also, Blessings of the Forest Goddess has gained a counter, meaning I am only a few steps away from achieving the resources I need to defeat you!"

Throughout his verbose opponent's statement, Takashi had remained calm and silent, despite the increasingly difficult situation facing him. Wordlessly, he drew, matching Jin's previous topdeck with his own, before making a far simpler move than his opponent had. "I summon Soul of Timidity (700/400) in defense mode, and end my turn." With that said, the petite Soul appeared crouching before him, already looking slightly nervous at the sight of the broadsword-wielding Aresth.

Jin drew a card in response, and sighed as he placed a card on his Duel Disk, causing another Elf to appear next to Aresth. "You disappoint me, Takashi, forcing me to conclude the duel in such a mundane manner. I summon Isindra-Elf Assassin (1500/1200)." Isindra was, unlike Jin's previous Elves, female, and garbed in earthy colors rather than the shimmering robes and armor of her comrades. In one hand she clutched a dagger, and he face was covered by a strip of cloth. "Let us finish this," Jin said, with a dramatic wave of his arm, "Aresth, destroy that Soul of Timidity!" The swordsman responded with a bellow, and charged forward quickly before bringing his sword down on the defenseless Soul…who let out a scream of terror, covered her face with her hands, and vanished in a flash of light.

Both Jin and his Elves looked on in confusion, wondering what exactly had happened to the Soul. "Up here," Takashi called, bringing Jin's attention to the card in his hand. As Jin's mouth opened to ask the obvious question, Takashi answered, "If Timidity is face-up while she's attacked, I can return her to my hand in order to negate the attack and end the battle phase. Obviously Aresth's attack cannot be negated, but that really doesn't matter, because the target of his attack vanished."

Jin frowned briefly at this development, then grinned slightly and chuckled, "It seems that the battle is not yet over. Very well, then I suppose I am forced to end my turn. Simply know, that I will not allow that Soul to survive for long."

"You don't actually have to worry about that," Takashi assured, "I can't normal summon or set Timidity on my next turn following the turn I've activated her ability."

Jin grinned even wider as he heard this, and he pointed a challenging finger in Takashi's direction. "That means that you must topdeck again, then! How exciting, this duel is coming down to the very end, both of us struggling against a lack of resources in order to strike the final, deciding blow! Well then, draw your card, Takashi. Draw and let us see who shall win this battle!"

Takashi nodded, and drew the top card of his deck…and simply placed it in his hand next to the Soul of Timidity. "Actually," he stated, "the conclusion of this duel has nothing to do with whatever card I drew this turn. It was decided by my surviving until this moment."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jin prompted, "the only card in your hand besides the one you just drew is Soul of Timidity, and you said yourself that you can't use that this turn. And there are no cards whatsoever on your field."

"It's not a matter of what cards I have," Takashi explained, as a pink light began to emit from his graveyard, "it's actually a matter of what cards I once had. You see, following my second standby phase after Soul of Compassion had been sent to my graveyard, I may remove her from my graveyard…" The single monster card shot out of his Duel Disk, and he easily caught it before placing it in a pocket on his Ra Yellow blazer, before a space on his field began to glow with the same pink light, "…and summon one other Soul from my graveyard!" Jin's eyes widened, as from the circle of pink light, the all-too familiar form of the Soul of Fury rose, before his head was set aflame and five fireballs sprang into existence about him (2800/2800).

After some quick mental calculations, Jin came to a very uncongenial conclusion: "I'm screwed."

The comment brought a look of slight amusement out of Takashi, who stated, "Yeah, pretty much." Immediately, his Soul of Fury lunged towards Jin's field, all five balls of fire crashing into his form and setting him alight as he bodily tackled Aresth, destroying the Elf instantaneously (Jin LP: 850). Without hesitation, the Soul of Fury (2000/2000) sprang to his feet, the fire bursting from his body into five separate spheres, two of them immediately being sucked into his left arm, from which fired a bolt of flame that set Isindra alight, leaving her screaming in pain before her body was momentarily burned away (Jin LP: 350). Finally, the Soul of Fury turned to face Jin himself, and a final pair of fireballs crashed into his leg, setting it aflame before the Soul leapt acrobatically into the air, before delivering a spinning heel kick with the flaming limb that struck Jin in the chin and caused him to topple over (Jin LP: 0).

Takashi let out a small breath, and rubbed at the area of his chest just below his neck as he smiled very slightly in satisfaction. As his Duel Disk deactivated and the holograms faded, he approached Jin, and helped his silver-haired roommate to his feet. "Well, you made it difficult for me," Takashi stated, "but it looks like I get the bed."

Jin grinned widely back at him, and planted his hands on his hips in what appeared to be another pose. "After such an exhilarating duel, I am glad to submit the use of the deemed mattress to you," he stated, his eyes glinting, "however, do not allow yourself to get too overly confident, for I fully intend to face you again some time. And when that time comes, I do not intend to lose!"

"Uh-huh," Takashi replied, turning and walking back towards the dorm building, "I'm not going to have a rematch with you over the bed, though."

"WHAT!?" Jin exclaimed indignantly, racing to follow Takashi, "Unacceptable! I refuse to merely submit the spoils of battle when I fully intend to face you again! The bed shall remain on the table!"

"If you're so determined to get a different bed, why don't you approach Gnash about it?"

"Who?"

"The guy who nearly broke your arm."

"He did no such thing!"

"If you say so, Jin."

And so it went on, one roommate yelling indignantly over the atrocities that had transpired against him, while another calmly avoiding engaging him over it, until the third got sick of the whole thing and promised unpleasant deaths if the shouting continued. Yes, it was going to be very interesting for Takashi to have to live with these strange people…

* * *

So there you have it. The chapter's longer than I initially expected, but whatever. I'm just glad I managed to get another chapter up before I head back to school tomorrow. Until next time, I hope to hear from you on your thoughts on the chapter and the story.

_While Takashi gets to know his new roommates, Izumi meets her own at the dreaded Osiris Red dorm. Luckily, things don't look as bad as she initially suspected. Everything goes fine until a disgruntled student starts causing a ruckus and terrorizing the other newly-arrived Osiris Red students. It's up to Izumi to stand up to this anger-filled foe, and put him in his place_

_Next time: Misplaced Anger_


	3. Misplaced Anger

And so we plunge onwards! This chapter features one of my favorite sets in the actual card game, so I had fun with it. Hope you guys enjoy.

**Part the Clouds  
****Chapter Three: Misplaced Anger**

Izumi took a moment to gaze at her temporary home for three years (or, hopefully, less), before letting out a sigh. "Well, it could be worse," she told herself, glancing over her shoulder at the Osiris Red boys' dorm some distance away, "from what I've heard, the boys get it worse than I will, even with the money Manjyome Jun put towards improving it after he graduated. If the article in that Duelists Illustrated magazine was right, I won't have to sleep in a bunk bed…" She shrugged, and flicked her ponytail over her shoulder before heading into the dorm. "Still, the Ra Yellows and Obelisk Blues are probably living the high life. I'll bet Takashi's relaxed and comfortable right now…"

* * *

"This has been, by far, one of the most uncomfortable moments in my life," Takashi said aloud, right before letting out an uncontrollable sneeze.

"Oh, come on, Takashi, it can't be that bad," Jin replied. "I'll bet you've been through much worse than this, and other people have probably been through even worse!"

"You're probably right," Takashi consented, leaning back on his bed to stare at the ceiling, "Still, this place is going to take some getting used to."

After a short pause, he heard Jin say, "Hey…Takashi?"

"Yeah Jin?"

"Could you get Gnash to let go of me now? I'm starting to lose feeling…"

"Sorry, but I like all my limbs just the way they are right now."

* * *

"Looks like I'm the first one here," Izumi said to herself with a glance about the room. It was decidedly cramped- the three small beds within were positioned so that one met with each of the other two at the corners of the wall opposite the doorway she was currently standing in. In what little space against the walls was unoccupied by the beds, there was a small walk-in closet and a door leading into a bathroom. A small workspace consisting of a desk and chair was positioned directly adjacent to the doorway, and there were currently a large number of bags piled on top of it unceremoniously. "Guess I might as well get unpacked…" Izumi murmured, walking over to the pile and quickly yanking out several bags and making for the closet…just as the remainder of the precariously-placed bags tumbled onto the floor. Humming happily to herself, she began extracting her belongings from the bags and hanging up the clothes she had brought with her.

A few moments passed before there was a knock at the door. Izumi promptly dropped the clothes that were hanging from her arms, and spun around to pull the door open, beaming as she did so. After a few moments, she blinked, and tilted her head down to look at the person standing at the entrance to the room. "Wait a second…" Izumi said, "how'd you know someone was in here?"

"Because I have ears," the shorter girl responded. She was nearly half a foot shorter than Izumi, who herself was only of average height. Her hair was brown and drawn into two ponytails that hung past her shoulders, and her slim body was dressed conservatively- she wore a grey blouse and skirt that flowed all the way down to her ankles. There was a movement from around the doorway, and Izumi tilted her head to glance at another girl, about mid-way between Izumi's and the shortest girl's height. She had shoulder-length black hair, and was dressed far more normally- in a loose green shirt and blue jeans. She met eyes with Izumi, and smiled friendlily.

"Yay!" Izumi suddenly, inexplicably cheered, pumping a fist into the air and meriting a raised eyebrow from the girl standing immediately in front of her, "I'm the tallest in my room!"

"Congratulations," the shortest girl sighed, stepping into the room before bowing formally to Izumi, "My name is Junsei Nisou. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Nice to meet you, Junsei!" Izumi chirped, deciding to bow in kind, "I'm Izumi Yuusha!" Both straightened up, and Izumi looked to the other girl.

"Hi!" she chirped, and Izumi suddenly realized the definition of the term "bubbly personality." "The name's Sayuri Mishimoto!" she adopted a bright smile in favor of a bow, which prompted a smile in turn from Izumi.

Junsei glanced between her two smiling roommates for a few moments, and let out a loud sigh. "Of course," she said aloud, apparently to herself, before walking over to the pile of bags, pulling out two before placing them on one of the beds. With the pile of bags significantly downsized, one could see that three sets of boxes had been placed beneath the pile. "What wonderful room service," Junsei remarked dryly, picking up the box that was adorned with her name. "I'm going to go change," she remarked, heading towards the bathroom without another word.

"She's kinda weird," Izumi remarked, looking off in the direction Junsei had departed. She turned back to look at Sayuri, "Don't you think?"

Sayuri jumped a bit at the sudden question, and for some reason began blushing and giggling nervously. "Um…w-well, I…I talked to her earlier and…" Izumi blinked when, after a few seconds, Sayuri did not continue. However, the girl eventually let out another bubbly laugh and chirped, "she said she hates the school already! Isn't that funny?"

"No," Izumi replied immediately. A sweatdrop appeared on Sayuri's forehead, and she let out another nervous giggle, and attempted to stutter out a response, but Izumi left her little room to do so before she continued, "She came here for a reason, and she has to stay here for three years. She can't just hate the place for three years, she better find something she likes. Really, I think that J-…Jo…Ja…?" Izumi put a finger to her chin in thought, "What was her name again?"

"Oh!" Sayuri perked up in relief, as this was a question she could actually readily answer, "Junsei!"

Izumi shook her head and sighed, "I'm going to forget that one…not catchy enough…hm…"

"Oh…" oblivious to Izumi, Sayuri began to look nervous again, "W-well…her last name is Nisou…"

"Nisou!" Izumi swiftly chimed, with an enthusiastic clap of her hands, "Perfect…And you're Sayuri, right?"

Sayuri nodded, and was about to vocally affirm this, when an earsplitting shriek erupted from within the bathroom, "AAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" This deafening screech was punctuated with a rather overly enthusiastic opening of the bathroom of the door, which struck the wall so hard that it chipped some of the paint. In the doorframe stood Junsei, who was wearing a positively demonic expression on her face along with her Osiris Red uniform. It was significantly more confining than the male version, consisting of a skirt that barely reached her mid-thighs and a tight, sleeveless blazer, all of it in deep red.

Izumi gave her roommate a strange look, and asked, "What the heck's wrong with you, Nisou?"

"What the heck's wrong with me!?" Junsei parroted angrily, standing up and indicating her clothing with her arms, "How do they expect us to wear these!? I LOOK LIKE A HARLOT!"

"Oh, it's not bad at all," Izumi waved her roommate off dismissively, and picked up the box labeled with her name before heading into the bathroom. "It looks really nice to me. I'm gonna go try mine on!"

Junsei let out a huff as the door clicked shut, and whirled on Sayuri with a look of divine fury. "This is disgraceful and demeaning!" she exclaimed, "I will not stand for this!"

Something seemed to click in Sayuri's mind, and she put a hand to her mouth before saying, "Oh, you're…completely right! It's so embarrassing…I wonder if-"

Sayuri was cut off when the bathroom door was kicked open once again, this time with significantly less anger and force coming behind the blow. Still, Sayuri noted that there were now two foot imprints on the inside of the door, even as Izumi stepped out and struck a pose, now clothed in her Osiris Red uniform with a school-provided duel disk strapped to her wrist. "Wow, I don't know what your problem with this is, Nisou," Izumi commented, doing a happy twirl, "I look totally AWESOME!" Junsei angrily crossed her arms over her chest, and was about to voice her opinion when suddenly a large explosion sounded from somewhere outside of the room. Izumi quirked her head slightly in curiosity when she heard the sound, and muttered, "That sounds weird…" But then her expression snapped back to her usual happy one, and she bounded out of the room with a cry of, "Let's go check it out!"

Several seconds of silence passed then, each of Izumi's roommates staring at the doorway she had rushed out through. Then Junsei turned to Sayuri and said, "She's a rather odd one, wouldn't you say?" Sayuri responded with another bubbly laugh, causing Junsei to sigh in frustration.

* * *

Izumi didn't have to run far to see what had caused the noise- halfway between the Osiris Red boys' and girls' dorms a small crowd had gathered around two students, who had obviously just dueled. One of the students, a boy dressed in a Red uniform, had been knocked on his back by his opponent, who had evidently been the winner. As Izumi approached the field where their battle had taken place, she heard the victor proclaiming, "Worthless! You're all totally worthless! I've already crushed four of you, and those damn teachers had the nerve to stick me in your ranks!?" He shuffled his deck up and slid it back into his Duel Disk, preparing for another duel already, "I am Naoki Shikei, and I'm going to prove myself superior to each and every one of you!"

By this time, Izumi had a clear view of the speaker, a student who had apparently refused the ranking thrust upon him to the extent that he had not changed into his uniform. Instead, he wore a deep green jacket over a brown shirt with black pants. He had vibrant red hair, which stuck out less than an inch from his head, and he was currently glaring challengingly at all of the gathered students with fierce green eyes. "Come on!" Naoki shouted at the gathered students, raising his Duel Disk into the air, "This is pathetic! Are all of you too scared of me to even step forward and challenge me? You're a bunch of cowardly worms!"

"Hey!" Izumi objected, stepping forward, "I'm not a worm! Worms are gross!" Many of the gathered students turned their heads to give her strange looks, including Naoki, but she didn't seem to notice.

After a few moments, Naoki smirked, and said, "If you don't like that title, worm, then try and make me stop using it for you."

Izumi frowned, and activated her Duel Disk (Izumi LP: 4000). "Fine then," she replied, "I'll put you in your place, you arrogant jerk!"

Naoki let out a small chuckle (Naoki LP: 4000). "How kind of you," he remarked, drawing an opening hand of six cards, "I've been trying to reach my rightful place all day. I'll start things off by summoning Y-Dragon Head (1500/1600) in attack mode!" As Naoki declared the action, a red-plated robot with the shape of a winged dragon appeared in front of him, and let out a roar of challenge. "I'll then set one card facedown and end my turn."

"Y-Dragon Head…" Izumi muttered to herself as she drew a card, "at least I know what to watch out for now. I'll start my turn by summoning D-Hero Dunk Guy (1100/1700) in defense mode!" Izumi's monster was a dark-skinned, muscular man with dark blue dreadlocks hanging from his head. "I then discard a D-Hero from my hand to activate Dunk Guy's effect," Izumi continued, slipping a card into her graveyard, "for each Destiny Hero I discard, Dunk Guy deals five hundred damage to your life points!" The dreadlocked hero cupped his hands together, forming a ball of golden energy between them before he leapt into the air. Then, with a powerful swing of his arm, he threw the sphere down at Naoki, causing him to stumble back as the ball struck him in the chest (Naoki LP: 3500).

Naoki grunted a bit in response to the blow, but nonetheless seemed unimpressed. "Getting rid of one card for such a measly bit of damage?" he taunted, "You must not be very experienced if you made such a pathetic tradeoff."

Izumi smirked back at him as she fiddled with one of the other cards in her hand, "And you must not have ever played against the Destiny Heroes if you think putting one of them in the graveyard has put me at a disadvantage. I play Over Destiny!" The ghostly blue image of the D-Hero Dash Guy that Izumi had just discarded rose up from her graveyard before momentarily fading away, leaving in its place the black, cloaked form of D-Hero Devil Guy. "Over Destiny targets one D-Hero in my graveyard, and then lets me summon another from my deck with no more than half the level of the targeted Destiny Hero. Therefore, I can summon D-Hero Devil Guy (600/800) in defense mode!"

Her opponent snorted derisively, and crossed his arms over his chest. "Fine, so you get out two weak monsters and do a tiny bit of damage to my life points. I'll just tear them both down and crush you on my next turn."

"Don't get too far ahead of yourself, Naoki," Izumi warned, before pointing a finger directly at the Y-Dragon Head, "I'm not done just yet! Devil Guy, use your effect and remove the Y-Dragon Head from play!" Naoki's eyes widened as the weaker of the two Destiny Heroes swept forward and swiped across the red machine's head, causing it to cry out before it vanished. "Don't worry," Izumi reassured with a grin in response to the look of surprise that had crossed Naoki's face, "your monster will return on your second standby phase. Now, I'll continue my turn by playing Destiny Control." As she spoke, she slid the top five cards from her deck and glanced them over. "This lets me look at the top five cards of my deck and rearrange them in any order before I replace them. After that, I draw one card from the bottom of my deck." After exchanging some of the cards with each other, she slid the group back onto her deck, before gripping one at the opposite end of it and tugging it free. "I'll finish up by setting one card facedown."

The facedown card had barely appeared before Naoki angrily drew. He wasted no time in rapidly playing a series of cards, which appeared in quick succession. "I summon X-Head Cannon (1800/1500) in attack mode," he began, "as well as playing the permanent spell Frontline Base, which once per turn lets me summon a Union monster of level four or less from my hand. With that ability, I'll summon Z-Metal Tank (1500/1300)!" Izumi blinked as both monsters appeared, one after the other with a face-up green-bordered card materializing behind them in-between. The first machine was constructed in the form of a human's upper body, balanced on a large spiked ball. Twin shoulder-mounted cannons framed its angular head, and it was plated in blue armor. The Tank was yellow and consisted of a pair of caterpillar treads, between which a single, large eye protruded.

"The XYZ set," Izumi stated with a nod of her head, "I couldn't be sure that it wasn't just a normal machine deck until you summoned all three of them, but it looks like your deck is focused almost exclusively on the strategy. They're a powerful set…Kaiba was known for using them, and Manjyome Jun was famous for bringing out their full potential when used in conjunction with the Ojama set."

"What are you, some kind of dueling history book?" Naoki spat, scowling, "Fine, if you're so familiar with them, you know you don't stand a chance, especially not after I do this! I combine X-Head Cannon and Z-Metal Tank together!" With a wave of his arm, the blue machine flew up into the air, before it came down on top of the yellow one. There was a crackle and a hiss as the two machines came together, and Naoki said, "By removing my two machines from the field, I summon XZ-Tank Cannon (2400/2100) from my fusion deck!" Upon the successful arrival of his new monster, Naoki promptly slid a card from his hand into his graveyard, "And now I'll show you how to really get the full value out of a discarded card! By discarding a card from my hand, XZ can destroy one facedown spell or trap on the field!" Izumi gulped as the composite machine leveled all four of its cannons at her facedown card, and blasted it out of existence. "And now to get rid of Devil Guy!" Naoki shouted, "XZ-Tank Cannon, Mega Destruction!" Once more, the machine's four cannons fired, blowing away the clawed D-Hero. "I set one final card facedown, and end my turn," Naoki concluded.

Izumi took a small breath, and drew the top card of her deck. Immediately, her graveyard began to glow, and she slapped the drawn card onto her Duel Disk without looking at it. "I already know that the card I've drawn is D-Hero Dread Guy (?/?), which I placed at the top of my deck with Destiny Control. That means I can use Dash Guy's effect to immediately summon him!" The scarred behemoth of the Destiny Heroes rose up with a roar, his intimidating bulk causing Naoki to take an involuntary step back before he caught himself. "Because Dread Guy has been summoned, two more D-Heroes are summoned from my graveyard," Izumi proclaimed, as both Dash Guy (2100/1500) and Devil Guy (600/800) appeared, giving her four monsters total.

'_This girl…'_ Naoki thought, peering at Izumi through narrowed eyes. _'She's different…she's somehow made more summons than I have in the first two turns, and she's done it without using up as many resources!'_

"Dread Guy's attack and defense are equal to the combined total of every other D-Hero," Izumi proclaimed, as the large Destiny Hero's power shot up, "however, before going on the assault, I'll sacrifice Devil Guy to Dash Guy's effect, which will increase his attack power by one thousand (3100/1500) (Dread Guy: 4200/3200)!" Devil Guy faded out of sight, while both Dash Guy and Dread Guy became surrounded by a red aura. "Now to finish this all in one assault!" exclaimed Izumi, "Dread Guy, destroy XZ-Tank Cannon!" The large warrior leapt forward, and thrust forward his arm in an open-palmed strike.

"I'm not beaten that easily!" Naoki shouted, motioning to one of his facedown cards, "I activate Limiter Removal, which doubles the attack of all machines on the field until the end of the turn, at which time all monsters affected by it will be destroyed! XZ-Tank Cannon (4800/2100) counter-attacks!" The composite machine squealed as it overexerted itself, and as Dread Guy approached, it launched an immense barrage of laser-fire that sent the scarred behemoth flying.

Despite the force of the attack that had struck him head-on, Dread Guy soon pulled himself upright, and stood facing Naoki's field again. "During the turn Dread Guy is summoned," Izumi stated, as she set a pair of cards into her Duel Disk, "all battle damage against D-Heroes is negated. I set two cards facedown and end my turn." As she stated the last three turns, Dash Guy (2100/1500) and Dread Guy (3200/3200) lost a significant amount of strength, while Naoki's XZ-Tank Cannon simply exploded.

However, the loss of his monster, which left him with a single facedown and no cards in his hand prior to his draw, did not seem to discourage Naoki. He quickly drew, and the Y-Dragon Head which had been banished previously reappeared on his field. "It's my second standby phase after Y-Dragon was removed," he stated, as he played his drawn card, "which means it's back just in time for me to take control of this duel! I play Twilight Renewal, which can only be played if it's the last card in my hand. I draw until I hold five cards!" Without a moment's hesitation, he ripped free five cards from his deck and glanced over them, an ever-widening smirk spreading across his face as he selected one of them and slid it into his Duel Disk before drawing two more cards, "Pot of Greed pumps up my hand to six cards!"

'_He's building up to something,'_ Izumi realized, though she could do nothing but look on. _'I can almost sense him gathering up momentum to release in one big rush. And if I'm right, I won't even be able to stop him…'_

"Now I'll show you why you're all inferior," Naoki proclaimed, slamming one of his numerous cards into his Duel Disk, "I pay two thousand life points to play Dimension Fusion! Now both players summon as many cards from out of play as possible!" A pair of swirling portals manifested on either side of his Y-Dragon Head, while none appeared on Izumi's field. Both his X-Head Cannon and Z-Metal Tank emerged from the portals, completing the set. "And now, with the parts gathered, it's time to assemble the whole! I remove X, Y, and Z from play to summon XYZ-Dragon Cannon (2800/2600)!" The three machines soared into the air, stacking one upon the other into the war machine equivalent of a totem pole before descending, all five cannons leveled at Izumi's field. "And now I activate XYZ's effect!" declared Naoki, slipping a card into his Duel Disk, "At the cost of one discard each, I can destroy any card on your field!" All five cannons warmed up, and launched a barrage of light at one of Izumi's facedown cards, incinerating it.

Izumi raised her arms in front of her face to shield it from the kickback of the blast. She then lowered them, and glared determinedly across the field at Naoki. "XYZ-Dragon Cannon is a powerful monster," she consented, "but it's well-known for having the weakness of burning up resources quickly. You can clear my field and take a shot at my life points this turn, but you'll only have one card in your hand to fuel XYZ's effect on your next turn."

Naoki chuckled, and slid a card from his hand into his Duel Disk. "Normally that would be true," he stated, "however, I activate the permanent card Full Refund. As long as it remains active, all cards I discard during a turn will return to my hand during my end phase. However, I am limited to only discarding those cards until the following end phase unless they are affected by other cards- I may not otherwise play them." He twitched his fingers, folding the three cards in his hand together, and stuffed all of them into his graveyard. "So with that in mind, I discard the remainder of my hand to destroy all the cards on your field except Dread Guy!" The XYZ-Dragon Cannon's weapons hummed to live, and launched a tremendous wave of energy that scorched the air on its way to Izumi's field.

"Hang on a second!" Izumi cried, jerking a hand towards her remaining facedown card, which flipped up, "I activate Destiny Destroy, which discards the top three cards of my deck and deals me one thousand damage for each non-monster amongst them." She flipped around the three cards in question for Naoki to view, and stated, "Those cards are D-Hero Diehard Guy, D-Hero Disc Guy, and Destiny Mirage. Destiny Mirage is a trap, so I take one thousand damage." She placed the three cards in her graveyard, then cringed as the effect of her own trap took its toll (Izumi LP: 3000). Then the wave of energy that Naoki had launched obliterated almost her entire field, and knocked Izumi onto her butt.

Naoki smirked as Dread Guy let out a gasp, his strength gone (0/0). "Heh, that's the weakness of having a monster with no base power," he said triumphantly, "take out the source of their power, and they're nothing but some big target. XYZ-Dragon Cannon, obliterate her D-Hero! Hyper Destruction!" Izumi covered her face with her hands once again as the machine launched another blast, destroying her most powerful monster (Izumi LP: 200). "This is why I don't belong in Osiris Red," Naoki said, turning his head to spit on the ground in disgust, "you got a couple lucky hits on me, but in the end you're inferior. I end my turn, and the four cards I discarded now return to my hand by Full Refund's effect!"

Izumi regained her footing before she narrowed her eyes, glaring at Naoki's insults before putting her hand to her deck and snapping out the top card. "Don't get ahead of yourself, Naoki," she said, immediately playing the drawn card without looking at it, "because I've known for the past several turns that this next card will give me what I need to come back in this duel! I play Doctor-D!" White light shone from the ground in front of her, and Dread Guy once more emerged on her field, muscles bulging as he loomed over the field (?/?).

"No!" Naoki cried, staring up at the Destiny Hero with fear evident in his eyes. _'She'd had this play waiting since her very first turn…that Destiny Control let her plan out summoning Dread Guy twice in a row!"_

"Doctor-D revives one D-Hero at the cost of removing another from my graveyard," Izumi explained, slipping Diehard Guy into a pocket on her blazer. "So now, Dread Guy summons two more D-Heroes to join him!" The familiar black and purple body of Dash Guy (2100/1500) rose up to Dread Guy's left, while to his right a man covered entirely in sleek silver and blue armor came forth. From his forearms and shoulders jutted what appeared to be large cd-roms. "My choices are Dash Guy and Disc Guy (300/300)," Izumi stated, before drawing two cards from her deck, "and when Disc Guy is summoned from the graveyard, I draw two cards!" Naoki gulped then- he knew what was coming next. "I sacrifice Disc Guy to power up Dash Guy by one thousand points (3100/1500) (Dread Guy: 3100/1500), then have Dread Guy attack XYZ-Dragon Cannon! Dread Blow!" This time, the large Destiny Hero's blow was unimpeded, his open palm shattered the composite machine's armor, toppling it over (Naoki LP: 1200).

Naoki grimaced, and then shouted out loud, "No! I won't be defeated by someone so lowly!" He shoved a card from his hand violently into his graveyard, and the XYZ-Dragon Cannon's ruined frame began to glow with a green aura. "From my hand I can discard Dimension Death when a monster on my field is destroyed in battle. That monster is removed from play and I gain its attack in life points!" Rather than flying apart in a flash of flame, the machine suddenly was sucked into itself, and vanished with a popping sound as Naoki's life points began to climb (Naoki LP: 4000).

"Well, that's why I chose to summon Disc Guy," Izumi said with a sigh, glancing at her back-up options before looking back up at the field, "Dash Guy, attack directly!" The shark-headed Destiny Hero tore across the field, the wheels on his legs screeching as they slid across the ground, and he knocked Naoki onto his backside with a powerful uppercut (Naoki LP: 900). Izumi emptied her hand before stating, "I set two cards facedown, and end my turn. Also, Dash Guy goes into defense mode after attacking."

Silence reigned completely for the next several moments. The crowd of students stared in awe- a few of them had never seen such a back-and-forth battle amongst their peers. Naoki stared at the ground a few seconds, where he had dropped his cards following the blow he had suffered. Finally, he said, almost hesitantly, "No…" Then, he swiped up his cards and, with more determination, repeated, "No!" He got to his feet, and fiercely drew a card, exclaiming, "I will not be defeated like this! I'm going to rip you apart and then crush every other student here! I can't play any of the other cards in my hand except the one I've drawn…but that doesn't matter! I activate Tiny Pound Hammer, and shuffle it and every other card in my hand back into my deck before drawing an equal number of cards from my deck!"

'_He's building up momentum again,'_ Izumi thought to herself, glancing at both her set cards, _'and I still can't stop him. I can only hope I'll be able to hold off his rush…'_

"I summon V-Tiger Jet (1700/1500)!" Naoki cried out, a yellow and green machine appearing in front of him just as he slapped a second card onto his Duel Disk, "Then, using the effect of Frontline Base, I summon W-Wing Catapult (1300/1500)!" A cubical, bulky blue machine with twin missile launchers was the second to appear. "I play Machine Output," Naoki continued, sliding the named card into his graveyard before drawing two cards, "If there is a machine on my field, I may draw two cards. Of course, now I remove V-Tiger Jet and W-Wing Catapult from play to summon VW-Tiger Catapult (2000/2100) from my fusion deck!"

Izumi felt a flash of fear as the two machines linked with one another, the Wing Catapult acting as an attack platform for the Tiger Jet. _'Oh no…'_ she thought, eyeing the Tiger Catapult warily, _'That monster…it means I was wrong, he doesn't exclusively use the XYZ set, but all five monsters! But…he can't have a method for summoning XYZ-Dragon Cannon again, can he? He's only got three cards in his hand, so he can't have any way for summoning another set, and he doesn't have enough life points to play Dimension Fusion…'_

"I discard a card from my hand to activate VW-Tiger Catapult's effect," Naoki declared, and Izumi's crouching Dash Guy suddenly stood up to his full height, indicating he was now in attack mode, "I change the battle position of your D-Hero. And now, the effect of my discarded Makyura the Destructor (1600/1000) activates, allowing me to activate traps from my hand for the duration of the turn!" He snickered slightly, and flipped around one of the two remaining cards in his hand before sliding it into his Duel Disk, "So let's finish this! I activate Return From the Different Dimension to summon every one of my machines that have been removed from play at a cost of half my life points (Naoki LP: 450)!" Izumi's eyes widened to their limit, as in the sky above Naoki a random tear in the atmosphere appeared, and from it dropped X-Head Cannon, Y-Dragon Head, Z-Metal Tank, and XYZ-Dragon Cannon, all four machines landing in line with VW-Tiger Catapult.

"They'll be removed at the end of the turn…" Izumi muttered, though there wasn't much hope behind her words. One turn was all Naoki needed…

"Heh, idiot," Naoki said with a smirk, before plucking up the cards from his Duel Disk, "I intend to remove them from play right now! X, Y, and Z combine!" The three named machines launched into the air, coming together and interlocking before returning to the ground (2800/2600). "And then…" Naoki continued, pointing at the other two machines on his field, "VW and XYZ combine as well!" The joining of the two larger machines was more complicated, as both to some degree were taken apart before the whole came together. Unlike the previous machines, this one was human-shaped, the X-Head Cannon forming the head as well as the torso in conjunction with the Y-Dragon Head, the Z-Metal Tank providing the arms, and the W-Wing Catapult the legs. On the back were the V-Tiger Jet and the wings of the Y-Dragon Head. "Behold," Naoki declared, "the VWXYZ-Dragon Catapult Cannon (3000/2800)!" Following this enthusiastic introduction, he shoved the single remaining card in his hand into his graveyard, "I activate XYZ's effect! Destroy Dash Guy!" The combined three machines fired their cannons, launching a massive blast that blew away the sharp-angled Destiny Hero and sent Izumi crashing to the ground once again.

Izumi gritted her teeth, got to her feet, and punched in one of the buttons on her Duel Disk, causing one of her set cards to flip up. Over her field, a spotlight appeared with a black, rigid 'D' at its center. "I activate D-Signal! When a monster on my field is destroyed, I can then summon a level four or lower D-Hero from my deck, so I choose D-Hero Doom Guy (1000/1000) in defense mode!" A fierce-looking man appeared before her, covered head-to-toe in dark gold and black armor. Jet wings sprouted from his back, and his left hand ended in sharp-looking fingers while his right was covered in a cannon of some sort. "And Dread Guy now takes his attack and defense strengths (1000/1000."

Naoki snarled, and looked over at the muscular D-Hero with hatred burning in his eyes. "That thing just keeps coming back!" he yelled, before thrusting his arm out to point at the addressed monster, "I'll make sure you don't have the chance to use him again! VWXYZ, use your effect and remove Dread Guy from the game!" Izumi gasped, as a thin laser fired from each of the large machine's chest-mounted cannons and pierced the behemoth's chest.

"Activate set card!" Izumi exclaimed, as her final facedown card flipped up, "Destiny Energy grants me one thousand life points per D-Hero on the field, which is two because Dread Guy hasn't been removed just yet!" Her body glowed briefly with a faint white aura, indicating the life point boost (Izumi LP: 2200), before Dread Guy let out a cry of agony and faded into nonexistence. Izumi sadly picked up the monster card off her Duel Disk, and placed it in the pocket of her blazer.

"It doesn't matter that you get a few extra life points, idiot!" Naoki yelled, "I have far more than enough attack strength to crush you this turn! VWXYZ, destroy Doom Guy! Ultimate Destruction!" The immense machine complied immediately, its chest-mounted cannons humming to life. "And when VWXYZ attacks, I can change the battle position of his attack target!" Naoki laughed, as Doom Guy came out of his defensive crouch and leveled his arm-cannon to fight back against the superior machine. The VWXYZ-Dragon Catapult Cannon's weapons fired, sending a tremendous laser blast flooding towards Doom Guy, who futilely replied by gunning his cannon and sending a small burst of flames to meet the blast. The assault continued unheeded, and Doom Guy was blown out of existence (Izumi LP: 200).

This time, Izumi refused to fall, as she bent her knees to absorb the knock-back of the attack. "I'm not…done…" she vowed, as the blue-armored Disc Guy (300/300) rose up before her in a crouch.

"But…but how?" Naoki spluttered, the victorious look previously adorning his features suddenly wiped away, replaced by shock and confusion. After a few moments, realization dawned upon him, "Doom Guy's effect…"

"Summons a level four or lower D-Hero from my graveyard when he's destroyed in battle," Izumi finished, picking two cards from her Duel Disk, "And because Disc Guy was revived from my graveyard, I replenish my hand."

Naoki's mouth twisted into a hideous scowl, and his eyes blazed with anger. "I'LL KILL YOU!" he shouted, "HYPER DESTRUCTION!" A barrage of laser-fire from XYZ-Dragon Cannon downed Disc Guy, resulting in another fiery explosion. Despite this, Izumi still managed to retain her footing. Naoki took a few ragged breaths, before his lips returned to their normal smirk. "I'll admit you're giving me a run for my money, you nuisance," he stated, holding a hand to his graveyard, "But I'm afraid it's all over now. Once you draw and start your turn, you'll have three cards to defend yourself with. However…Full Refund now returns the two cards I discarded this turn to my hand, meaning on my next turn I'll have three cards to discard for XYZ's effect, as well as VWXYZ's once-per-turn removal! Any defense you set up will fall, and I'll trample you into the ground! It's over!"

His rant was interrupted by, of all things, Izumi giggling slightly. Naoki quirked an eyebrow at her, and she looked up, smiling. "You can spare me the 'You're doomed!' speech, Naoki. It's not going to work."

"What are you talking about?" Naoki questioned angrily, "It's completely true! There's no defense you can surmount that will hold!"

"You only think I'm going to lose because of how our hand sizes compare," Izumi stated, drawing a card to begin her turn, "but you've completely forgotten what the true objective of a duel is. I play The Warrior Returning Alive!" She placed the name card into her graveyard, and received a new one in exchange, "This card allows me to pick up a warrior from my graveyard and add it to my hand. I'll follow that up by summoning D-Hero Death Guy (700/600)!" The Destiny Hero that appeared was a man garbed in a long, black cloak that was secured about his waist by a belt buckled with a metal 'D.' The cloak flowed across his entire body below the neck, save for his right arm. The named arm was clad in a black sleeve and glove, and protruded from the cloak so as to grip the handle of a long-bladed scythe. His eyes were covered by a metal mask that resembled part of a skull, and long red hair flowed from his head.

"What the hell is that thing going to do?" Naoki questioned with a huff before crossing his arms over his chest. "This is pitiful. I'll be happy when I've wiped away your scum."

"Just shut up and let me finish," Izumi scolded, waving her arm to motion towards her monster, "Death Guy, I activate your effect! For us to grasp victory, I ask you…sacrifice yourself!" The scythe-wielding Destiny Hero nodded without hesitation, and suddenly his remaining three limbs materialized from beneath the cover of his cloak. His left arm swung around to grip his scythe, while his legs spread so as to steady his stance. He swung the scythe around, now gripping it backwards, and plunged the blade into his gut. A number of the students watching the duel voiced their revulsion, and the Destiny Hero coughed up a bit of blood. "By sacrificing Death Guy, I can choose and activate one of two effects," Izumi declared, as the scythe-wielder pulled free his weapon and spun it around to grip it properly, the blade now drenched in his own blood. "I choose to summon a level four or lower D-Hero from my graveyard!" Death Guy nodded, and swung his scythe down, the blade sinking without resistance into the ground. With a jerk, Death Guy tore open a blood-red portal in the ground, before collapsed, his life evidently spent.

"So you're going to summon Disc Guy again?" Naoki questioned, "Fine! So you'll have four cards in your hand, but one of them's a monster that you can't summon this turn anyways. I'll still be able to blow up your field on my turn and destroy you!"

Izumi merely responded with a smile and a shake of her head. "It's not Disc Guy I'm summoning," she contradicted, holding up a card from her hand, "As a matter of fact, he's the guy I picked up with The Warrior Returning Alive."

"But what…" Naoki looked at the card in confusion…and then his eyes widened as a dark-skinned, dreadlocked man rose up from the portal that Death Guy had opened. "No…"

"Yes," Izumi stated, "I revive D-Hero Dunk Guy (1100/1700) with Death Guy's effect!" She jerked her arm around, holding Disc Guy's card poised above her graveyard, but she hesitated. "I'm sorry I can't finish this duel in a cool way, Naoki," she apologized, "but you didn't give me much of an option."

"This can't be happening…" Naoki murmured, seemingly ignorant of the words his opponent had just spoken. The two cards in his hand fell from his grip, and floated to the ground. "I can't lose like this…"

"No, I'm pretty sure you can," Izumi said with a sigh, pushing the card into her graveyard. As she did so, she recalled Naoki's previous words "'The full value out of a discarded card,' huh? I guess ending the duel with a discarded card would fulfill that, wouldn't it?" Dunk Guy formed a ball of energy between his palms, and then pushed of mightily against the ground with his legs, leaping into the air and landing on VWXYZ-Dragon Catapult Cannon's shoulder before vaulting onward, turning a flip in mid-air and sending the ball crashing down on Naoki, driving him to his knees (Naoki LP: 0).

The holograms faded, and the audience surrounding them let out a cheer to celebrate Izumi's victory…or perhaps it was Naoki's downfall. In any case, both duelists turned a deaf ear to the noises, and some of the audience members began to walk away. Naoki stayed on his knees, staring glumly at the ground. "How pathetic…" he muttered, "I lost to an Osiris Red…" Within a few moments, he saw a pair of red shoes step into the top of his field of vision, and he looked up to see Izumi looking down at him with a smile. "What? You want to gloat?"

"No, not really," Izumi replied bluntly, "I want you to stop being such a drama king. Only I get to act that way." Naoki blinked in confusion at this comment, but Izumi took no notice and continued, "I understand how you don't like what the academy's given you; I mean, I didn't like the decision they made on me either, heck I still don't. But I also know that there's nothing I can do but accept it and try to get better." She sighed then, and crossed her arms over her chest, "I know it sucks to be told you belong amongst the worst group here, and I'll bet it sucks even more for it to basically be proven to you forcefully... but you've just got to get over it!"

"Oh, that's really helpful," Naoki retorted, his voice scathingly sarcastic. The comment earned him a silencing glare from Izumi.

"Look," Izumi stated, "at this point you've got two options. The first is you go off and angst and throw a tantrum and vow revenge…" Then she unexpectedly extended an open hand towards him, and continued, "…or you can apologize for being a jerk, and maybe we can both come away from this happy."

Naoki stared at the offered hand for a few seconds, eyes wide and mouth opened in surprise. After some hesitation, he took the hand in his own, and Izumi pulled him to his feet. "…I'm sorry," he said, averting his gaze in a gesture of humility.

"Yay!" Izumi shouted out, a wide grin on her face, and she suddenly wrapped her arms around Naoki in a powerful hug, "Everyone's happy now!" A few seconds later, she realized that Naoki was choking, and released with a comment of, "Whoops…I guess I should've remembered that from Takashi's complaints…"

She was snapped out of her embarrassing recollection by Naoki's words. "Um…forgive me for asking, but…I never learned your name…"

Izumi smiled, and replied, "I'm Izumi Yuusha. In spite of all that's happened today, I'm glad to meet you, Naoki!"

"Yeah…" Naoki replied with a slight smile. He sighed, and glanced down at himself while Izumi grinned. "Well, I'd probably look good in red anyway…"

* * *

So this is the first chapter I managed to complete since my return from winter break. It took a couple weeks just to get started, but I swear I've been really busy, and I think it came along pretty well. I should be able to update this story far more regularly than all my previous works. By the way, for some obscure reason I forgot to give credit to Time Mage for creating Jin Tsukimaru, as well as the bulk of the cards he used during the duel with Takashi. While I'm at it, credit goes to WolfGeneral and Seeker of the Soul for creating Junsei Nisou and Sayuri Mishimoto, respectively.

_Everyone's managed to settle in with relative peace at Duel Academy, and classes are now in session. A surprise substitute appears when Professor Tsura Niya calls in sick, and leaves the first-year students fascinated. Unfortunately, some egos remain at large, and Takashi has invoked the wrath of a classmate with the act of pointing out a simple mistake. Once again, he is drawn into a conflict that can only be resolved in one way…_

_Next Time: First Lesson – Respect the Class!_


	4. First Lesson Respect the Class!

I'm really sorry it took this long, but I essentially hit the mass of chaos incarnate that is the end of one's high school career. I've had a lot of stuff happen to me since I last posted, and I'm changed for it. It took me awhile to absorb some things that've happened, and I'm still getting over some stuff, but I'm happy to get back to my writing. Enjoy.

**Part the Clouds  
****Chapter Four: First Lesson – Respect the Class!**

Sunlight filtered through the window, a beam of brilliance shining through the glass and focusing on a single spot on the ground, which gradually moved. It crept up the side of a bed, then across the sheets, and finally directly into the face of Jin Tsukimaru, who twitched in his sleep, and gradually opened his eyes to meet the day…only to let out a loud scream of pain. "AAAAAAUUUUGGHH! Damn it! I knew this would happen! Damn you Takashi, I shouldn't have to wake up like this, so early, just to get blinded! I'll-!" He paused when his vision returned, because he saw that Takashi was not asleep in his bed.

"You know, it's not very courteous of you to make such noise when other people are still trying to sleep," Takashi said from where he stood in the middle of the room, where he was pulling on his Ra Yellow jacket. "It's also not a very smart thing in this case, considering at the moment 'other people' consists of Gnash."

Jin's face warped into an expression of sheer terror, as he twisted his head to look at the third bed in the room. Gnash was still lying with his head on his pillow, apparently not having moved since waking up. However, his blood-red eyes were focused intently on Jin right now, broadcasting a look of great displeasure. "Um…sorry?" Jin squeaked, before Gnash simply stood up, grabbed his uniform, and walked into the bathroom, emphasizing his departure with a loud "SLAM!" of the door.

"Breakfast's in a few minutes, Jin," Takashi stated, clasping up the top of his jacket, then repeatedly unclasping and clasping it, apparently undecided as to whether to leave it open or closed, "You'd better hurry if you want to get anything." With that he promptly left the room and headed downstairs, still clasping and unclasping the jacket.

Jin's mouth suddenly dropped open, and he called after his roommate. "Wait, Takashi! Don't leave me alone in this room with Gnash! Hey! COME BACK!"

* * *

Whether or not Jin's fears were unfounded never came to light. In any case, he managed to leave the room safely, eat breakfast, and arrive at their first scheduled class. Still, Jin managed to find himself seated between Takashi and Gnash, much to his despair. "This isn't fair…" Jin moaned, hitting his face on the long desk he and his roommates were sitting at, "I keep getting beat up by one roommate, and the other couldn't care less about me! Because of their combined cruelty, I am left to sleep in the most uncomfortable area of the room!" His head twisted up to look at Takashi with a rather pathetic expression, "And for what reason? You get up before the sun even rises, so why did you want to avoid that bed so much!?"

Takashi crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat, looking calm as he stared down at the stage from which their teacher would speak. "I'm used to getting up early for school," he explained, "but I like sleeping in on weekends."

"…You…" Jin stared at him for a few moments in genuine confusion. "What!? That doesn't make any sense! Why would you greet the worst part of the week with such enthusiasm and then sleep through the best?"

"Why would you continue annoying a person when he's come close to killing you each time you've done it?" Gnash suddenly spoke up, causing Jin to jerk around in his seat in surprise. The pale-skinned teenager currently had his headphones on, and Jin could plainly hear loud music blaring from the speakers. "That doesn't make any sense either, yet you insist on doing it."

Jin was silent for a few moments, before commenting, "How can you even hear us?" Gnash shrugged his shoulders in response, then crossed his arms on the desk in front of him and dumped his head into them. Jin whirled on Takashi again, "Anyways, I asked you first!"

"I don't know," Takashi responded, shrugging his shoulders, "The same reason you sleep in when you have things to do but are active when you're duty-free. I just grew up this way."

Before Jin could think up a response to that comment, his attention was caught by the sudden appearance of an Osiris Red girl with a black ponytail and a bright smile, and was standing in the aisle to Takashi's left. "Wow, Takashi!" she chirped, looking down slightly at the Ra Yellow student, "You look good in your uniform too!"

"Thank you," Takashi replied levelly, straightening up slightly in his chair at the sight of his friend. "How are you, Izumi? I thought you'd be sitting with your roommates right now."

Izumi shrugged. "They weren't very interested in talking with me, so I got bored and decided to come find you," she looked down the row, catching sight of Jin, who was watching her, "Hi! I'm Izumi! Are you one of Takashi's roommates?"

The silver-haired teen grinned, and stood up out of his seat before taking a formal, elegant, and showy bow. "Indeed I am, young maiden," he replied, "my name is Jin Tsukimaru, cultured duelist extraordinaire!" There was a slight pause as Izumi took in his introduction, the silence punctured by the low but easily noticeable noise emanating from Gnash's headphones. Jin's eyes twitched as he heard the sound, and he straightened up to glare at the paler teen's napping form. "…And this is Gnash," he continued, and the named student noncommittally lifted a hand in greeting in Izumi's general direction, before lowering the hand and going back to shutting out the rest of the world.

"Class looks like it's about to start," Takashi observed, looking to the bottom of the room once again. He glanced at the empty seat on his left, the last in the row before the aisle, before looking up to Izumi and asking, "Want to sit with us?"

The girl grinned widely and plopped down next to him almost immediately. "Okay," she accepted, "but only because you asked so nicely." Takashi simply rolled his eyes, while Jin chuckled at the cheeky remark.

"Hey," a low voice suddenly caught all of their attentions, and Takashi, Jin, and Izumi swung their heads around to the speaker, a Ra Yellow student sitting in the row behind them. He had short, combed-over black hair, and he wore a pair of glasses, through which he was directing a glare at Izumi. "She's not supposed to be here," he stated, although it almost seemed like a threat. A pair of two more Ra Yellow boys flanking the speaker leaned over the desk with him, and nodded their agreement.

Takashi stared back at them and quirked an eyebrow. "…What?" he questioned after a few moments of not receiving any explanation from any of the trio.

The student on the left grunted, "She's Osiris Red."

"Not supposed to be here," the student on the right jumped in, echoing the one in glasses.

Izumi glared at the three, but Takashi spoke before she could rebuke them. "Ah, segregation," he said almost dismissively, "Okay, I get it now. Sorry, I just never got a good grasp of the whole idea, my mistake."

"That's fine," the one in glasses replied with a smirk, before turning to look at Izumi, "so how about you join all your dropout friends, and crawl out of our sight like the unworthy, pathetic worm you are."

"WHY YOU-" Izumi's brown eyes blazed with fury, and she began to stand up when Takashi placed a suppressing hand on her shoulder, lightly holding her down.

"Hold on a minute, Izumi," Takashi spoke in a neutral tone. However, his eyes were directing a somewhat different message at her: _'Don't get in trouble on your first day in class, you idiot.'_ Izumi paused momentarily, before her eyes caught sight of Jin, whose green eyes were twinkling slightly.

Jin's mouth curved into a smirk, and he rose very slightly out of his seat to leer at the three students. "I'm sorry," he stated, in a very formal tone, "but is you are going to make such a great deal out of who does and does not have the right sit here, I'd like to point out that this is the non-Neanderthal section of the classroom. If you continue to violate this sanction, I'll be forced to have you removed."

The one with glasses looked positively outraged with the cool insult, and stood up, flanked by his two cohorts all the way, and began to position himself to dive on top of Jin. He opened his mouth to yell, even as Izumi rose up from her seat again to back Jin up, "You damned conceited little mother-f-"

"IT'S GNASH, DAMN IT!" All five of them were knocked back into their seats in shock, as the sudden loud shouting continued, "IT'S GNASH!" There was a shuffling sound, as every single set of eyes in the room turned to the pale teenager, who was glaring angrily down at the stage below. His headphones were cast down on the desk, forgotten, and his crimson eyes were practically setting the air in the path of his gaze aflame. A few students followed his glare, down to where a young man with glasses and a long black ponytail was sitting in front of a computer and smiling pleasantly. He had been taking attendance.

"Ah, if you say so," he spoke, quite pleasantly despite the force of Gnash's look, "sorry to bother you, I just couldn't see you… Okay, I'm done with attendance…"

Jin blinked a few times rapidly, his previous confrontation with the other students momentarily forgotten. He leaned over to whisper in Takashi's ear, while Gnash settled back, grumbling, into his seat. "Hey…what did he say Gnash's name was?"

Takashi, who to this point had been calmly sitting in his seat, turned to look at Jin for a few moments, and rolled his eyes before relinquishing. "Rudy Jameson." The force of Gnash's glare caught him full in the face, and he quickly looked away from his second roommate as soon as he noticed Izumi trying to catch his attention.

"Hey Takashi…" she said, staring down at the young man who was on the classroom's stage, "Isn't that the guy who spoke to us on the ship here?"

"Oy, Sempai!" the glasses-wearing Ra Yellow student behind them shouted out, realizing from his clothing that their teacher was in fact a fellow Academy student. When the older student looked up at him, the younger motioned towards Izumi and said, "This girl refuses to go back to her section with the other Red students!"

The older student looked up with that same friendly smile on his face, and surprised the loudmouth Yellow with a simple, "So?" The other student stuttered for a moment, before frowning in displeasure and slumping down in his chair, defeated. The Obelisk Blue student abandoned the computer then, standing up and walking to the center of the stage to better address his audience. Izumi had been correct- it was the same third-year student who had spoken with she and Takashi on the cruise to Duel Academy. He was wearing the same shirt-tie-slacks combination from their time on the boat, but it was now partially covered up by a long, blue and white jacket that had been pulled rather haphazardly over his arms and was hanging open, as if he had only donned it as an afterthought.

The senior student adjusted his glasses momentarily, then smiled at the gathered students and opened his arms out towards them in greeting. "Hello class," he said, his eyes very briefly sweeping over them, "unfortunately, your regular teacher, Professor Tsura Niya, had to call in sick today, due to a sudden attack from a chronic condition he suffers from. No professional substitute was readily available, so Tsura Sensei himself recommended that I take over the class for today. For those of you who don't know me – and I'm sure there are quite a few of you – my name is Yuu Sonaru. It's a pleasure to meet all of you, and to be responsible for conducting your first class at Duelist Academy."

Now properly introduced, Yuu strolled casually back over to the desk on which the computer sat, and looked at the monitor for a few moments. "I'll have you all know," he stated, clicking the mouse a few times to bring up several different windows on the computer, "that as this is a first-year course in Duel Monsters strategy, Tsura Sensei had planned for me to go over the different kinds of spell cards today…" Yuu stood back from the monitor, and just as the students let out a collective moan, he turned his back on them. It helped to hide his smirk of amusement. Several seconds later, when the groaning had quieted somewhat, he continued, "…which is perfectly fine, I'd hate to have thought up my own material for the lecture. After all, the only other thing I can think of to present on is a theory I've been working on regarding how best to unlock a duelist's full potential, and I'd hate to bore you all to tears with something so complicated." Yuu bit his lip to hold back a chuckle when a great number of the students began murmuring amongst themselves. He composed himself quickly, and plastered the same friendly but not overly emotional smile on his face before turning around and proclaiming loudly, "Well then, I suppose we should just get started with our lesson! To begin with-" Yuu held his reaction to the barest quirk of the side of his mouth when a hand suddenly shot up, raised by some girl in the Osiris Red ranks. "Oh, a question already? Very well, but it helps to let your teacher speak for a few seconds on the lesson before peppering him with questions."

The girl blushed slightly at the comment, as several of her classmates were snickering. "Um…actually, sir…I was curious about that theory you mentioned…"

"WELL, I suppose I could allow putting the entire class through such a mind-numbing presentation for the sake of ONE student," Yuu said with a grin, suddenly pulling a disc from his pocket and approaching the computer once again, "so long as you're willing to put up with the constant harassment and social exclusion the rest of the class will impose upon you because of your curiosity." Most of the students present missed the joke, however, as they were too busy leaning forward in their seats, many with eyes gleaming with anticipation.

Jin chuckled slightly from his spot beside Takashi. "He's pretty clever," the silver-haired student stated, leaning forward across his desk as he did so, "rather than simply going with what he wanted, he presented the class with two options, making the topic seem more favorable. I mean, the rest of it was just a sort of bad over-acting, but it got the job done. I'd say he knows how to teach…"

The large screen at the front of the class flickered on, displaying a simple row of squares marked 1, 2, and 3. Yuu picked up a remote from the desk carrying the computer and held it casually in one palm as he stepped out to face the class gathered before him. "There are three general properties to consider when determining the level of one's dueling capability," he spoke, before suddenly pointing with his free hand at one of the students near the front of the class, "as we are speaking of a card game, would you mind telling me what one of these factors is?"

"Um…" the student, caught off-guard by the sudden query, blinked stupidly once before responding, "cards?"

"Precisely!" Yuu spun around and clicked with the remote, causing the image on the screen to change, displaying a large number of cards. "A duelist can only reach a certain level without a good set of cards to draw out the true potential within them. Even a champion-level duelist would have an incredibly difficult time winning with a deck centered around Queen Bird." Another click of the remote, and suddenly three towering figures rose up on the screen, each a fierce and powerful beast, ranging in color from red to yellow to blue. "A very few especially rare cards in the world are so incredibly powerful that only a duelist of great skill can hope to defeat one without using a card of equal power," Yuu commented, his friendly smile shifting into an odd smirk, "and so our three dorms recognize some such cards. But can someone tell me another characteristic of a strong duelist? Yes, you, up there."

Takashi, Jin, and Izumi tilted their heads back a bit to look at the glasses-wearing student from before, who had a knowing look in his eyes as he answered, "A strategic mind."

Yuu nodded his approval and clicked the remote again, causing a rather strange image to appear on the screen in the place of the three Gods. There now stood a stick-figure with nerdy glasses and a Duel Disk strapped on his left arm, clutching a hand of overly large Duel Monsters cards. A thought bubble appeared over the figures head, filled with a series of calculations, probabilities, and random scribbles. "A somewhat overly simplistic explanation, but pretty accurate," Yuu remarked, "Mental strength is a great advantage to a duelist, in so many different ways. From fully grasping the mechanics of the game, to formulating a strategy while constructing their deck, to analyzing a particular situation… There are so many factors to consider, and so the mental contribution to dueling ability is difficult both to understand and to improve. The common method to achieving the second is, quite simply, practice. However, to quicken the process, there are a few more…extreme means which might be explored."

An image of a brain appeared on the screen at his words, and a specific region of the organ began to flash. "The frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex is responsible for higher-level thought processes," Yuu explained, "with proper stimulation to this region, the mental capabilities of a person could potentially increase significantly, and thus possibly pave the way to reaching their potential as a duelist." He let out a short breath, and closed his eyes momentarily before turning them to scan the gathered students. "Of course, regardless of your mental capabilities, of your ability to analyze a situation, to anticipate the actions of your opponent, to understand the probability of drawing a certain set of cards, and other traits that will cause peers to label you a 'genius'…there is one final aspect of dueling that can render all of that useless if you do not possess it. Can one of you name it?"

For a few moments, there was silence in the class room. A look of disappointment crossed Yuu's face, but still he received no answer to his question. That was until Jin bit back a scream as Gnash's arm rose up next to him, followed by the rest of the teen's body. Yuu looked at the Ra Yellow student, and his lips moved, freeing a single word. "Will."

Yuu's face lit up, returning to its former state, and he clicked the remote once. "That is absolutely correct," he stated, a strange glimmer in his brown eyes, "strength of the spirit can cause all logic and planning to be rendered meaningless, at least according to example." Several dozen faces flashed across the screen time, each belonging to a person with a fiercely determined look in his or her eyes. Eventually, the screen settled on a teenager with piercing violet eyes and utterly ridiculous hair. "Several prominent duelists in history have defied probability in duels of significant magnitude, and achieved victory under the most unlikely circumstances. None did so more times than Yugi Moto, the first King of Games. Even with a deck structure that many would find both highly unorthodox and very difficult to execute to great effect, he won under very trying circumstances on multiple occasions."

"He got lucky," a voice suddenly rang out, and a large number of shocked pairs of eyes jerked in the direction from where it had originated. The Ra Yellow seated behind Takashi, Jin, and Izumi had spoken up again, though this time he looked generally less simply confident and rather more angered at something. "It's hard to believe he won so often when nearly all of his duels were close ones, and he was on the losing end in almost all of them until the very end. The fact that he pulled it off so many times is a matter of luck, when a truly skilled duelist could've at least put up a strong battle early on."

Then the student heard a sigh from directly below him, and looked down at Takashi, who was now craning his neck to look back at the student upside-down. "You're ignorant," Takashi stated, "A duelist doesn't win that many times just by getting lucky, although it's a factor. It's a card game, so of course part of it's left to chance, but the fact that he won so many times means that each time he was at least good enough that he had the potential to win. Yugi Moto was good enough to execute some pretty complex combos when he absolutely had to, and whether or not you believe that 'Heart of the Cards' stuff he preached about, it seemed to work for him."

A scowl fell on the other student's face, and his fingers clenched tightly as he gripped the edge of his desk, while a grinding noise emitted from his mouth as his teeth grit together. "Listen, you!" he snapped, "I've had just about enough of you and your stupid little friends' smart-aleck remarks!"

Takashi sighed, "Oh come on, can't we settle this like rational-"

"Hey!" Jin stood up from his seat and turned to glare at Takashi's verbal opponent, "Who are you calling little?"

"You want to back up those words, tough guy!?" Izumi immediately imitated Jin's actions, and raised a threatening fist to boot as the Ra Yellow's two companions stood up to flank him.

"…" Takashi slumped down in his seat and pressed a hand to his temples as the five students surrounding him exchanged threatening looks and words. "This can't end well…" His head snapped up a familiar, friendly voice reached his voice.

"Is there a problem?" Izumi, Jin, and the three Ra Yellow students seated behind them immediately froze in place, before slowly turning to look at Yuu, who had climbed up the stairs to their immediate left, and was surveying them with a smile still on his face. When he got no coherent response after several seconds, he calmly pointed a finger, first at the Ra Yellow student with glasses, then at Takashi, and said, "You know, here at Duelist Academy, almost all disputes are settled by dueling. It's rather redundant and at times seems illogical, but in the end nobody gets hurt, so all ends well. I have no further lessons for today, and I would prefer it if your first class at the academy were not besmirched by a nasty, unresolved conflict."

A few silent moments passed, before the glasses-wearing Ra Yellow student smirked, and ran a hand through his black hair. "That sounds fine to me," he voiced, arrogance evident in his tone, "it'll give me a chance to show these losers their place: beneath me, the great Roger Warren!"

"…This…is just so utterly stupid…" Takashi remarked listlessly.

* * *

Regardless of how little Takashi thought of the situation, in a few minutes he was standing across from Roger, each student with his Duel Disk activated and ready. "Time for you to learn your place, upstart!" Roger sneered, yanking six cards from his deck to open the duel (Roger LP: 4000).

"…You could at least show some common courtesy by addressing me by my name," Takashi replied, ignoring the other aspect's of Roger's taunt, "it's Takashi Kasei." With that, he drew his opening hand of five cards and waited quietly (Takashi LP: 4000).

"It doesn't matter what I call you," Roger spat, "all that matters is that you're a loser, and I'm going to prove it in this duel! I set three cards facedown and summon Tankroid (1500/1900) to the field!" Takashi blinked when the named monster appeared, because…it just looked so very odd. It was a tank, as its name suggested, but it was about the size of a man, and had cartoonish eyes and arms, which ended in four-fingered white gloves. "That'll end my turn."

"…What the heck is that Toon Town reject?" asked a bewildered Jin from his seat. While Takashi and Roger had taken the stage, their friends had remained with the rest of the class to watch at a distance.

"It's a Vehicleroid," Izumi explained simply, "one of a set of machines whose images are based on a series of American cartoons that were popular about a hundred years ago. I've heard a lot about them, and they have a wide variety of effects…but I've never seen anybody use them before, except for the odd one in a basic machine rush deck."

"I draw," Takashi declared, beginning his first turn, "and I counter by summoning Soul of Courage (1400/1200) to the field." The red, armored Soul faded into focus before Takashi, before drawing his sword and preparing for battle. "Soul of Courage will now attack Tankroid," Takashi continued, and as his monster charged towards the machine, his hand went to his deck.

"What are you even trying to accomplish?" Roger questioned with a sneer, "It's obvious that my monster is stronger, so why send your Soul of Courage to his death?"

"Because Soul of Courage is battling a monster with higher attack power than his own," Takashi stated, slipping three cards from his deck, "I can discard up to three cards from the top of my deck to increase his attack and defense by three hundred points each (Soul of Courage: 2300/2100). Now, Blade of Fortitude!" The Soul's form pulsed momentarily, becoming surrounded by a brilliant red aura as he swung his sword down on the helpless tank.

"Activate trap cards!" Roger declared, "Cyber Summon Blaster and Cyber Production Line!" Then his tank was cut in half, and it loudly announced its own downfall by exploding afterwards (Roger LP: 3200). "And now you pay for your foolishness," Roger said with a grin, "when a machine is destroyed in battle, Cyber Summon Blaster lets me summon one with an equal or lesser level from my deck. In addition, I activate my final trap!" The single remaining set card on his field flipped up, and Roger removed his deck from his Duel Disk to sift through it, "When a machine is sent to my graveyard, I may summon another copy of it from my deck. This, combined with the effect of Cyber Production Line, gives me two Tankroids (1500/1900 x2) in place of the destroyed one!" Indeed, Roger's words rang true, as two more of the strange-looking living tanks now rested on their treads in front of him.

"But that's not the half of it," Roger continued, a predatory look on his face, "when Tankroid is destroyed, I can draw one card from my deck. In addition, Cyber Summon Blaster deals you three hundred damage each time I successfully summon a machine! So now take your damage!" The continuous trap card fired a burst of electricity, striking Takashi in the chest. The teen frowned slightly, but didn't react a great amount to the damage (Takashi LP: 3400).

"Very well then," Takashi stated, slipping two cards into his Duel Disk, "I'll conclude my turn by setting two cards facedown. Even if you do have two Tankroids instead of one, they can't get past my Soul of Courage."

"Oh, I'm well aware of that," Roger said with a smirk, drawing a card and adding it to his hand before selecting another to play, "but I don't plan on allowing that thing to stick around. I play Temporal Disruption, which will destroy all monsters on the field!" At Roger's words, both of his Tankroids and Takashi's own Soul of Courage immediately exploded, leaving the field clear of monsters. "Temporal Disruption then allows each player to draw one card for each monster they lost, so I draw two cards and you draw one," he explained, before grinning, "of course, because my Tankroids were destroyed, I draw an additional two cards from their effects!" He hungrily drew four cards total, pumping his hand size up to an impressive seven cards.

"Activate quickplay spell," Takashi declared, as one of his two set cards flipped up, "Soul Induction activates when a Soul on my field is destroyed, and allows me to summon one from my hand to replace it. Therefore I summon Soul of Serenity (1400/1600) in defense mode." Takashi's newest monster was a somewhat transparent woman, who glowed a pleasant light blue. She sat in a cross-legged position calmly, in a meditative pose, and wore a flowing blue robe. Her hair was very long, and fell in waves down her back, framing her face as she smiled contently with her eyes closed.

"For all the good it'll do you," Roger said dismissively, "I'll take care of that other set card of yours by destroying it with the Mystical Space Typhoon I just drew." A small tornado swept up around Takashi's set card, tearing it apart and leaving him with only his Soul of Serenity on the field, while Roger still had a full six cards remaining in his hand. "And now to finish this. I summon Steamroid (1800/1800) in attack mode!" A man-sized locomotive appeared on Roger's field, and glared at Takashi with a pair of round, colorless eyes. "To complete my assault team, I play Renewal of Triplets to summon all three copies of a single monster from my graveyard if all three exist there. Return, my Tankroids (1500/1900 x3)!" Energy crackled from Roger's face-up Cyber Summon Blaster, and he grinned as it struck Takashi for more damage (Takashi LP: 2500). "Turns out that the damage is unnecessary at this point, though," he commented, casting an arm towards the Soul of Serenity, "I've got enough gathered on my field to just plain run over you! Steamroid, attack Soul of Serenity!" The locomotive's steam whistle screeched, and it powered forward towards the still calmly sitting Soul. Just as the Steamroid was about to launch a punch with its fingerless metal arm, it collided with an invisible globe of force a few mere feet from the Soul's body, and bounced backwards harmlessly.

"Once per turn," Takashi voiced, picking up a few cards from his Duel Disk's graveyard slot, "I can remove three cards in my graveyard from play to negate one attack against Soul of Serenity. That stops your assault in its tracks."

Roger growled, and slammed a card into his Duel Disk as he said through clenched teeth, "I set one card facedown. Go."

Takashi nodded, and slipped a card from his deck, before suddenly producing one of the three cards he had removed from his graveyard. "After it is removed from play, Treasure of the Different Dimension returns to my hand, and both players draw two cards. That gives me a total of seven cards in my hand." He slipped two more cards from his deck, and browsed over his options, while Roger did the same with a sour expression on his face. "I summon Soul of Contempt (1400/1300)," Takashi continued, another Soul appearing to flank the Soul of Serenity. This one was male, but was far more regularly dressed than Takashi's other Souls. He had short golden hair, and wore black gloves and boots and a long black leather jacket with gold lining. As he faded into view, the Soul cast a look of disdain at the monsters gathered on Roger's field. "Additionally," Takashi continued, "I play Soul Rebirth, summoning Soul of Courage (1400/1200) from my graveyard."

Roger scowled as he saw the armored Soul rise up, giving Takashi a set of three monsters, each with one thousand four hundred attack points. _'It's alright though...only one of them can do him any good, and my set Mass Production can negate his attack plus let me add a machine from my deck to my hand, meaning I can finally grab my key monster and finish this in one mighty rush!'_

"I play another spell card," Takashi declared, as an orb of darkness rose up in the middle of the field, then pulsed outwards, hitting all seven monsters occupying it. "Raw Emotion-Crushing Despair can only be activated during my first main phase, and it prevents any player from declaring an attack until my next turn. Also, my opponent must discard one card from the top of their deck for every two levels of all face-up monsters on the field. All seven of our monsters are level four, meaning their combined level is twenty-eight. So discard fourteen cards from your deck."

"Damn it all…" Roger muttered, taking a large number of cards from his deck and stuffing them into his graveyard. _'I can't believe this…combined with all the cards I've been drawing, and summoning my Tankroids from my deck…I've gone through thirty cards so far and it's only the fourth turn of the duel!'_

"I set one card facedown," Takashi stated, slipping two cards into his Duel Disk at once, "and then play Raw Emotion-Deep Abhorrence. By removing one Soul monster in my graveyard from play…" a single card from his graveyard, and he held it up to indicate it was Soul of Compassion, "I can now deal you twelve hundred points of damage." Roger's eyes widened as suddenly a clawed hand composed of crackling black energy sprouted from Takashi's Duel Disk, shot across the dueling field, and clamped onto Roger's neck. The grip tightened slightly, and after a moment the hand faded into nonexistence (Roger LP: 2000). "That ends my turn."

'_Damn it…'_ Roger thought to himself as he drew his card. He winced when he saw it. Useless. _'I can't figure this guy out,'_ he thought to himself, staring at the cards gathered on Takashi's field, _'he opens the duel with a beatstick-killer, but then he switches to stall techniques...with discard and burn effects? What's the point of his strategy?'_ "I can't attack, so I'll just end my turn."

Takashi nodded, and swiftly drew to begin his turn, "Alright…I suppose it's my turn to launch my assault, like you wanted to do previously. I begin by playing Heavy Storm, destroying your gathered spells and traps as well as my lone set card."

Roger reacted swiftly as an immense tornado began to kick up at the center of the field, tugging at the four spell and trap cards on the field. "Think you can dismantle my strategy so easily? Think again! When a face-up card on my field is destroyed, I can discard Rapid Reconstruction from my hand! At the end of the turn, it will be returned to my field!" Still, much to his displeasure, all four cards shattered, and he was obviously the one who suffered the greatest loss. Especially considering afterwards Takashi drew one card from his deck.

"My set card was Repayment of Losses," Takashi declared, "so I draw a card to replace it as it goes to the graveyard. Next, I summon my Soul of Fury (800/800)." The black-clothed Soul appeared immediately, and a lone fireball appeared orbiting his form while a brilliant orange flame sprung to life on his scalp, crowning his bald head. "My Soul of Fury gains a Fury counter for each instance in the current duel a Soul has been destroyed, and gains four hundred attack and defense for each counter. At the moment, he has one counter (1200/1200)."

"That's the monster Takashi used to beat me," Jin commented from his seat, "although at the time it was much more powerful, and it was able to use its effect to attack multiple times. But with only one counter, it's not even strong enough to beat any of Roger's Vehicleroids."

"Well, there must be some reason Takashi summoned it," Izumi said, though the statement seemed almost as much intended for her own reassurance as for Jin's. "I mean, he's not stupid, at least as a duelist. I just can't figure out what good it'd do in this situation."

"You're both a couple of ignorant fools," Jin jumped as Gnash spoke. Both Jin and Izumi were surprised to see that the black-haired teen had his headphones off, and was watching the duel intently. "Didn't you hear what he said? Soul of Fury gains a counter each time a Soul is destroyed. He's got three Souls with less attack points than his opponent's monsters. What do you think he's going to do?"

"Soul of Contempt," Takashi commanded, and the golden-haired Soul jerked his head, "attack one of the Tankroids." The Soul of Contempt nodded eagerly, and immediately leapt towards the machine, which responded by firing a comical-looking shell at the coat-wearing monster. The shell struck him in the chest, and stuck there, causing the Soul to let out a cry of pain and anger.

Roger smirked briefly as the Soul collapsed, but gasped in surprise when it suddenly jumped up and continued the attack. "What's happening?" he demanded, before the Soul of Contempt leapt bodily on top of the Tankroid, and the shell exploded, destroying both of them.

"Soul of Contempt, when destroyed, can destroy one monster on your field," Takashi explained, while his life points took a slight dip (Takashi LP: 2400). "And now, because a Soul was destroyed, Soul of Fury gains another counter (1600/1600), which he'll use to destroy another Tankroid!" The Soul of Fury smirked as another fireball appeared to match the first, and with a yell of rage caught both flames before slamming them together, launching a blast of fire that burned away a second tank within seconds (Roger LP: 1900). "Next, Soul of Serenity, attack Steamroid."

Roger scowled as the attack was declared, and the locomotive's attack points began to change. "So you knew, then. When Steamroid attacks, it gains five hundred attack points for the turn, but if it's the target of an attack, it loses the same amount (Steamroid: 1300/1800)."

"Exactly," Takashi stated, while his Soul of Serenity…lifted her arms slightly, causing the Steamroid to rocket into the air before exploding. Then she returned her hands to their original position, and continued to meditate (Roger LP: 1800). "And Soul of Courage will destroy the final Tankroid, as I activate his Blade of Fortitude to increase his power (2300/2100)." The final Soul remaining on Takashi's field let forward with speed and might, and easily cut down the final card remaining on Roger's field, the tank exploding after the blow was struck (Roger LP: 1000). Takashi drew another card before continuing, "I discarded another Repayment of Losses from my deck when discarding for my Soul's effect, so I draw one more card." With that done, he pointed a finger at Soul of Fury, who was currently tossing a rather large ball of flame up and down in one hand. "I remove two counter from Soul of Fury (800/800) to activate his effect, allowing him to attack again." With that said, the Soul tossed the fireball with significant force, knocking Roger off his feet as it struck him in the chest (Roger LP: 200). "I'll finish my turn by simply setting two of the three cards in my hand facedown."

A few moments of silence passed then, before Roger chuckled a bit and climbed to his feet again. "That was…a pretty impressive rush, I'll admit," he said with a dangerous smirk, "but…obviously, you failed to finish me, so it wasn't good enough. Besides that…you're such a moron! Don't you understand that you destroyed all three of my Tankroids, so I get to draw three cards from my deck?" Laughing triumphantly, he drew four cards from his quickly thinning deck in a single motion, before pointing at a glowing spot on his field, where a card was emerging. "Thanks to the effect of Rapid Reconstruction, I'll now bring back Cyber Summon Blaster! Time to destroy you!" Quickly, he pressed two cards one after the other into his Duel Disk, first a set card and then a spell, "I set one card facedown and then play Bait Doll on it. This forces the activation of a trap card, but destroys it if the timing is wrong. So now my set Miracle Garage is destroyed because the timing is wrong, but its effect activates because it was destroyed while set on my field, letting me summon a level four or lower Vehicleroid from my hand!" He slammed a card onto his Duel Disk, and a Vehicleroid resembling an ambulance tore onto the field with a screech of tires and a blare of sirens. "Kyuukyuuroid (300/1200) is summoned in defense mode, setting off Cyber Summon Blaster!"

"…That doesn't look like the kind of monster that would appear in a machine rush deck," Takashi commented, even as he took the hit from the Cyber Summon Blaster (Takashi LP: 2200). "I more expected a beatdown-style monster, like Steamroid."

"Fool," Roger said with a grin, "I'll have you know, this monster is key to a Vehicleroid Rush deck, just watch! I now summon Expressroid (400/1600), whose effect lets me add up to two Vehicleroids from my graveyard to my hand." A bullet train with slotted eyes appeared next to the Kyuukyuuroid, and immediately two of the many cards in Roger's graveyard shot into his hand, and he held them out for Takashi to see. "However, when a Vehicleroid is added from my graveyard to my hand while Kyuukyuuroid is on the field…it is special summoned instead!" He slapped both of the picked up monsters onto his Duel Disk, causing the Steamroid and a Vehicleroid resembling a sixteen-wheeler to appear before him. "Behold, Steamroid (1800/1800) and Truckroid (1000/2000)! And then, more from Cyber Summon Blaster!"

Still Takashi's face remained neutral as he was struck by the electrical blast (Takashi LP: 1600). "I see…this is the key monster to your strategy, isn't it? Adding monsters from the graveyard to the hand is generally much easier and less costly than summoning them through conventional methods, so you combine them with Kyuukyuuroid to maximize your rush strategy. Still…while you've gotten four monsters out in one turn, only one of them can hope to destroy all but my weakest monster. So what are you really planning to do?"

"You're not quite so ignorant as I initially suspected," Roger said with a grin, "you understand that I'm just getting started, not that that knowledge will help you at all. I activate Vehicleroid Connection Zone, fusing together Steamroid, Truckroid, and Expressroid!" The three named monsters immediately shot into the air, and noisily began to attach to each other with a series of mechanical hisses and clicks, the Steamroid's head ending up at the front of a sort of train with the Expressroid and then Truckroid trailing behind in a long chain.

"Vehicleroid Connection Zone…" Izumi mused as she, Jin, and Gnash looked on, "the Vehicleroid-exclusive Fusion spell. I'm surprised Roger didn't play it earlier, but I guess he wasn't drawing it. The Vehicleroids are widely considered to be weaker than many machine sets, but a few select Fusions are thought to be quite powerful, especially ones with more than two components, called Super Vehicleroids…Takashi could be in trouble."

"Behold, Super Vehicleroid-Transportation Unit (2000/1500)!" Roger shouted as his monster descended, and immediately three cards shot from his graveyard. As he caught them, he explained, "While its base statistics are nothing impressive, it's Transportation Unit's effect that makes it deadly in my hands. When summoned, Transportation Unit adds three Vehicleroids other than its Fusion components from my graveyard to my hand. So now, in combination with Kyuukyuuroid's effect, I summon two Tankroids (1500/1900 x2) along with one Drillroid (1600/1600)!" Roger smirked as a few students in the main body of the class gasped in awe, and all three machines rose up. He had effectively crafted a mechanical army in just one turn. "Four machines were special summoned, so take some more damage! Cyber Summon Blaster!" This time, Takashi braced himself against the strike, widening his stance to prevent himself from losing his balance. The brown-haired teen frowned slightly, and his right hand went to his collar, clutching his jacket there to reassure himself (Takashi LP: 400). "Transportation Unit also gains three hundred attack and defense points for each card in my hand (3200/2700)! It's over now!"

"…Not yet it isn't," Takashi responded, one of his facedown cards flipping up, "activate Raw Emotion-Gripping Terror, targeting Transportation Unit." As he spoke, a yellow aura engulfed the large machine, and began to pulse.

"Useless," Roger stated, "a Vehicleroid summoned by Vehicleroid Connection Zone cannot be destroyed by effects, so there's no way you can defeat it!" Just as he finished speaking, the aura surrounding his Transportation Unit pulsed one more time, and the large machine vanished, shooting into the air with a mechanical squeal that vaguely resembled a screech of terror. Roger was, understandably, shocked. "What…but…that's…how?"

"Gripping Terror's effect is not one that destroys," Takashi explained, "rather, it returns one monster on the field to its owner's hand. Because Transportation Unit is a Fusion monster, it was instead returned to your Fusion deck. The immunities offered by Vehicleroid Connection Zone couldn't protect your monster."

Roger's shocked expression quickly warped into one of rage, just as Izumi let out a whoop of joy from her seat. "You…you'll pay! I'll still crush you, just the same, I just won't hold back now! And I'll do it by playing the most powerful spell card a Machine Rush deck can use: Limiter Removal!" Steam began to burst out of Roger's gathered machines, causing them to screech loudly. "The attack points of all machines on my field double, though they'll be destroyed at the end of the turn. Not that it matters…you'll be done (Kyuukyuuroid: 600/1200, Tankroids: 3000/1900 x2, Drillroid: 3200/1600)! Tankroid, blow his Soul of Fury apart!" The tank complied, launching a barrage of shells at the weakened soul rather than just a lone one. But the assault was rendered useless when a green aura sprang up around the Soul of Fury, causing the shells to bounce harmlessly away from his body on impact. The Soul broke out into joyful laughter in response to this, as if the blows had tickled more than anything.

"I activate Raw Emotion-Innocent Delight," Takashi stated, his final set card now face-up in front of him, and beginning to fade, "this negates your attack and increase my life points by an amount equal to Tankroid's attack (Takashi LP: 3400)."

Roger clenched a fist tightly in frustration, and let out a growl as well. However, in a few moments he came to a realization, and his anger faded, replaced by fear and uncertainty. "I…I can't finish it this turn…Soul of Courage can gain attack points, and Soul of Serenity can just negate an attack…I don't have enough attack points to deal thirty-four hundred damage this turn, meaning my machines will be destroyed at the end of the turn…I…" Roger quickly regained himself, and jerked a hand up to point at Takashi, "I can still win, even if not right now! Drillroid, Tankroid, attack the Souls of Courage and Fury!" Treads screeched against the ground as both the machines charged forward, and a series of collisions and explosions followed as the two dismissed using weaponry in favor of simply charging into their targets. The immense amount of noise that this sequence created easily muffled the sound of Takashi sliding three cards from the top of his deck into his graveyard (Takashi LP: 300).

"Naturally I activate Courage's effect," he stated, still calm despite the immense hit to his life points. "Is there anything else you'd care to do?"

"Stop acting all superior!" Roger snapped, shaking a fist at his opponent, "I'm going to win this, just you watch! I discard a card from my hand to play Trap Booster, allowing me to activate a trap directly from my hand!" He thrust the final remaining card in his hand into his Duel Disk, and immediately his Kyuukyuuroid became encased in futuristic armor. "The permanent trap Resilient Armored Plating comes into play with three counters, and I must designate one machine on my field. By removing a counter from Resilient Armored Plating, I can prevent that machine from being destroyed. My choice is my defense position Kyuukyuuroid, so it'll survive the end of the turn as well as your next few attacks. So now, I'll end my turn!" Immediately, his gathered machines began to explode, save the Kyuukyuuroid, which merely shuddered momentarily before returning to its original attack strength (300/1200). "I also draw two cards because my Tankroids were destroyed," Roger concluded, picking up the cards from his deck. _'Perfect…'_ he thought with a smirk, _'Takashi's virtually top-decking because the only card in his hand is Treasure of the Different Dimension, meaning Kyuukyuuroid will survive for this turn. Then, I'll be able to play Mechanical Replication to pick up a machine from my graveyard, and Kyuukyuuroid Cyber Summon Blaster will take care of the rest!'_

"Roger," Takashi said, catching the glasses-wearing student's attention, "this duel's over. And just as anger led you into this confrontation, so shall it lead to your defeat. I play Raw Emotion-Unbridled Rage."

"Hey, I remember this card," Jin spoke up, "it gives a monster a small attack boost and forces it to attack immediately, although it requires the opponent to control a monster to prevent dealing too much damage. Still, I can't figure out what Takashi intends to do…even if he attacks twice with Soul of Serenity, Kyuukyuuroid will still be on the field."

"You really are an idiot, aren't you?" Gnash voiced, and ignored the glare Jin threw his way in response. "Pay attention to what you just said. When Unbridled Rage affects a monster, it 'forces it to attack immediately.' "

Izumi looked perplexed, "So…what's your point, Gnash."

The black-haired teen closed his eyes and kicked back in his seat, as if the duel no longer interested him. "My point is, sometimes you want your opponent to attack you."

"Raw Emotion-Unbridled Rage boosts a monster's attack by five hundred and forces it to attack immediately," Takashi stated, "therefore, I'll target Kyuukyuuroid (800/1200) with its effect." Roger looked on in shock as his monster was surrounded by an orange aura, and immediately charged at Takashi's Soul of Serenity. This time, the Soul reacted by flicking her hand to the side briefly, sending the living ambulance crashing to the side of the field (Roger LP: 0). And then both monsters simply faded away, as some members of the class cheered (and one in particular with a black ponytail shouted joyfully) and the bell signaling the end of the period rang.

"You'll have to excuse me, Roger," Takashi stated, shutting off his Duel Disk, "but I must be going to my next class now. Good day." And then he left Roger standing on the stage, and proceeded to the door as Yuu dismissed the class, getting tackled by Izumi along the way.

Roger stood on the stage in silent thought for several moments after the rest of the class had emptied out. _'I was so close…so close to winning… But at the same time, it's like I never stood a chance… Twice he stopped my rush with such ease, I barely even touched him with battle damage! I guess…I guess I need to just…get stronger…'_

"Hey, kid," Roger was jerked out of his thoughts by the voice, and twisted his head to look up at Yuu, who was giving him a strange look. "Get out of my class, will you? Stop staring into space, it looks like you're having some weird internal monologue."

* * *

Damn it I hated this chapter. It's shameless filler, and I was not interested in it at all. If I hadn't hit the duel while writing it when I did, there's no way I would've finished it this early, and it's taken me four months to get it done as is. I do however look forward to the next chapter, so don't despair, a more regular updating schedule should be on the way.

_The first class is over, but the first day of the school year at Duelist Academy is far from over! Takashi, Izumi, Jin, and Gnash head to their next class, taught by a professor with a strict attitude and an active policy of enforcement. What will become of the upstart student who disrupts the class?_

_Next Time: Second Lesson – Respect the Teacher!_


	5. Second Lesson Respect the Teacher!

OMG, Nick updated! And it only took him a week! Did Hell just freeze over? So what if it did!? Enjoy the chapter!

**Part the Clouds  
****Chapter Five: Second Lesson – Respect the Teacher!**

"These roommates of yours are kinda weird, Takashi," Izumi commented to her friend, the two of them walking through the doors to the classroom a few paces behind Jin and some distance ahead of Gnash, who had his headphones back on. "Jin seems nice, but he freaks out a lot. And Gnash is just…well, you know…scary."

"Part of life at Duelist Academy is learning to deal with the acquaintances you make, I suppose," Takashi murmured in response, and Izumi didn't catch the meaning of the glance he gave her out of the corner of his eye. "Anyways, can we please just focus on getting seated? After that whole incident, I'd prefer if I could just have a normal session of class, if you don't mind."

"Aww, come on, Taka!" Izumi jeered, elbowing him in the side, and Takashi raised an eyebrow at the abbreviation of his name, "Don't tell me you didn't have fun. Besides, it had to be satisfying to knock that four-eyed jerk down a couple of pegs!" She punched the air enthusiastically to emphasize the statement.

"I found it difficult to enjoy, actually," Takashi coolly replied, holding a hand up to stop the movement of her arm when it came close to striking his nose. "It occurred out of anger, which rarely results in enjoyable recreation. Besides, I was never one for Schadenfreude."

Izumi looked blank for a few moments, before slowly coming up with a confused request for explanation, inevitably provoking a sigh from Takashi. "Who's Floyd and why would you shod him?"

* * *

A single door stood at the end of the hallway, and through it the muffled sound of a classroom full of students filtered into the silent hallway, the dull, constant hum pierced only by the clopping of a lone set of shoes as their wearer walked at a leisurely pace towards the portal. Twenty feet from the door, the strolling man stopped, and took a moment to look down at his watch, pulling up the sleeve of his black jacket to do so. The hand then dropped down, and the man sighed, but did not move from his spot.

"Jitters, Professor Lephoia?" voiced another man, and shoes squeaked on the tiles of the floor as the first man turned, bringing his eyes to bear on a stern-looking, white-haired man with a jacket marking him as the head of the Obelisk Blue dorm.

"Hardly, Jougo," he replied to Shin, and brought his hands up to clasp at the back of his head. "I'm simply not looking forward to a full sixty minutes of handling a few score first-year students. You know I hate it when my students don't understand my authority."

Shin smirked at Lephoia, "Yes, of course. I'm sorry to pester you when you're in such a sour mood. But really, you took this upon yourself when you volunteered for more duties. You didn't think Hiroshi would stop at making you write part of an exam, did you? Really, if you want to be considered for a dorm head position again, you shouldn't have such an attitude about voluntary work."

"I already told you I didn't want the damn position, Jougo," Lephoia countered, turning away, "Tsura's just an idiot, and you agree with me." A pause. Then, "I want to help these kids, Shin. I volunteered because I knew Hiroshi would finally let me take on more work. Everything I do nowadays is for my students…I don't need you to goad me into repeating my reasons in order to remember them. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to convince some cavemen that the sun exists."

Just as Lephoia placed his hand on the handle of the door, Shin spoke six more words, in a lighter and less prodding tone than before, "Lunch at the usual time, then?" Lephoia stopped, and after a few seconds, without turning, nodded once. With that, Shin turned and walked away, while Lephoia swung the door open…

* * *

Class was going to start late, apparently. Five minutes had passed since the bell signaling the start of class, and no teacher was in sight. Hence, when the teacher did actually arrive, nobody noticed him, as they were too busy chatting amongst themselves.

Before this occurred, however, Izumi took the opportunity to make some introductions. This began with a shout of greeting to an Osiris Red student, cutting off Jin who had been in the middle of explaining the lack of concern his roommates held for him. "Ah! HEY NAOKI!" Izumi cried out, catching the attention of the red-haired student, who looked back at her with a bewildered expression. When she saw that she had his attention, she made a beckoning motion towards him, and he hesitantly rose up from his seat and climbed the stairs towards them.

When he arrived, Izumi stood up and threw an arm about Naoki's shoulders, prompting a slight expression of surprise at her openly friendly attitude. "Guys, this is Naoki! He was being kind of a jerk over by the Osiris Red dorms yesterday, but he's okay now!" Jin looked at Naoki and Izumi with a confused expression, while Takashi made eye contact with the redhead. Naoki's face slowly drained of surprise, and the two nodded very slightly at each other, an unspoken understanding passing between them. "Naoki, this is my friend Takashi, and his roommates, Jin and Gnash!"

"Nice to meet you," Naoki said, smiling and nodding at each of them in turn. At Jin and Gnash, he stopped, and asked, "Um…which of you is which?" In response, Jin cocked his head and put on a deadpan expression, while Gnash remained quiet, his headphones blaring and his hair hanging over his eyes. Understanding registered on Naoki's face, "Ah, okay."

No time was left for conversation to continue between the five before a sixth voice made itself heard. "I thought it was you trying to wake the dead, Izumi," the voice had a dull, exasperated tone, but was unmistakably feminine.

Izumi let her arm fall from around Naoki's shoulders and whirled around. She did a complete circle and stopped facing Takashi, Jin, and Gnash again. She blinked once, and this time turned more slowly, and stopped when something briefly caught her eye. Izumi tilted her head downwards slightly, bringing the face of the speaker fully into view, rather than just the tips of the brown ponytails crowning her head. "NISOU!" Izumi gushed, squeezing the shorter Junsei in a very tight hug and causing her to gasp loudly in surprise. This was a mistake, as she was no longer capable of replacing the oxygen she let loose and hence was left gagging for a few seconds until Izumi released her, a slight giggle having caught her attention. Izumi turned, and was delighted to see another familiar face, "And Sayuri too!" She was very slightly surprised when Sayuri engaged the hug first, though she didn't mind, but was even more surprised when the girl pulled away, a light blush on her cheeks.

Meanwhile, Jin had stood to support Junsei as she caught her breath. "Easy there, my lady," he said, "wouldn't want you to damage that pretty face by falling on it, now would we? Allow me to help you. Jin Tsukimaru, resident master of elegance and culture, at your service." He finished the introduction with a winning smile.

Junsei caught her breath, and looked up at Jin just as he shot the smile down at her. Her haggard expression quickly turned to one of righteous fury, and she brushed off his hands as if they were annoying flies. "Touch me again," she warned, "and you'll have to count on your fingers in base nine." Jin balked, and Junsei stepped away from him as a brief flash of satisfaction shot across her face.

"Wow, everyone I've met so far is all here!" Izumi said happily. "Except Yuu, but he's probably teaching another class…Say…" suddenly Izumi seemed to have realized something, and she pointed a hand at both Junsei's and Sayuri's hips, "What happened to your uniforms?"

Junsei immediately crossed her arms over her chest and let out an annoyed huff. At the edge of each girl's skirt, a length of red cloth, not quite the same shade of red as the original fabric, had been stitched on, lengthening the garment to just above the knee rather than mid-thigh. Sayuri hesitantly offered up an explanation, "Well, um…you see, Junsei didn't like the way the uniforms were designed, and I thought they were kind of embarrassing…So we modified them a little bit to make them a bit more decent…Pretty clever, huh?" She smiled, looking a bit proud of herself.

"Are you sure you won't get in trouble?" Izumi asked, concern suddenly blossoming on her features, "I mean, I don't know if the academy has a strict policy about the uniform, but…"

To Junsei's mind, the conversation simply trailed off into nonsense then, as she stopped paying much attention. At some point or another, the topic changed to introductions again, and Izumi named everyone who had gathered there. The boys looked plain enough, though Jin had not made a good first impression on her…although when Izumi introduced Gnash, her attention was caught. The pale teen's dark hair was still hanging over his eyes, and to Junsei he seemed…odd. She could tell despite the fact that much of his face was hidden that he was staring with a thoughtful expression at Sayuri, although she could not understand any reason why. The girl was jumpy, and sometimes seemed unsure of how to act properly, but…That was no reason to be staring at her, now was it? Junsei's mouth curved into a thoughtful frown, and her eyebrows lowered as well, while she continued to ponder Gnash's appearance and actions. And then the pale-haired teen, as if he had felt her gaze, suddenly turned his head with a jerk to look at her. Junsei let out a gasp, and nearly fell over as his long hair parted just enough for him to glare at her with his blood-red eyes.

Just then, a loud CRASH sounded from the front of the classroom, and immediately every voice fell quiet. "Thank you," spoke Professor Lephoia, shouldering the baseball bat in his right hand, and kicking a bag full of what sounded like broken glass to the back of the raised platform at the front of the room, before turning to follow it back.

"I do not enjoy expending physical effort in order to gather the attention of my students," he spoke evenly, "but I will not hesitate to exercise my power as your teacher to enforce this class in whatever way I deem fit." Setting the bat on the ground, he turned to look at the class, with one black and one white eye. "Now that that's out of the way, I believe introductions are in order. My name is Giyan Lephoia, and I will be your instructor in Duel Monsters Tactics and Strategy. I will teach you to the best of my abilities, and in return I ask for your best efforts to succeed, and your respect for me as your teacher. Is that clear?"

He scanned the gathered students' various expressions, and was not surprised at what he saw. Some were looking at him with awe, some with resentment…but many were just looking at him in shock or confusion, which was not strange given his appearance: besides his eyes, his hair was white on the left side of his head, but black on the right, and while his clothing was appropriate for an instructor at Duelist Academy, the tails of the black coat he wore swept about his legs like snakes as he walked, giving him a rather dark appearance. "Good," he said conclusively, before reaching into his pocket and removing a single card from it, "Now, in this class, you will learn about the many different strategies in Duel Monsters. Given that there are many thousands of cards in the game, and any deck may contain any arrangement of forty or perhaps more, there are countless ways to arrange one's strategy. Although the single most important strategy to any duelist is his or her own, it helps to be knowledgeable of one's opponent, and you will come up against many. Those of you who pay attention in this class will emerge from it stronger than you were before."

"With that said, let's begin," Giyan said conclusively, flipping the card in his hand around. As he did so, a larger image of the card appeared on the screen behind him. It was a green-bordered card, depicting an image of a man in traveler's clothes, and bearing a cubical object across his back with a blue sash. A good number of the students immediately began to guffaw, while Giyan maintained his stern expression in silence.

"…What's the big joke?" asked an uncertain Sayuri, as she looked around at her guffawing classmates.

"That card," Izumi replied with an amused smile, "it's called Shien's Spy, a pretty old card but not widely played or known. It's because it has such a weak effect, especially for the time it was released."

"Its effect is opposite that of the infamous Change of Heart," Takashi explained, "The duelist who plays it selects one monster on his or her field, and gives control of it to the opponent for the duration of the turn. In general, the only reason you would ever play it would be to harm your opponent's life points should they have a defender or a strong monster in the way. However, in general you're investing two cards in the damage you would deal, and the fact that you require another monster on your field to take advantage of the weaker monster you give to your opponent…well, it's almost never worth the cost or the effort."

Giyan waited a few moments for the laughter to die down before speaking again. "Your underestimation of this card is exactly why some of you need this class," he stated, "if you are incapable of understanding this card's potential, then you would be utterly unprepared in the case that it was ever used against you."

"What a ton of crap!" yelled a student from the higher seats, "Nobody would ever play that stupid card anyways, so what's the point of being prepared to face it?"

"I did not say it was a commonly played card," Giyan admitted, looking up to look into the eyes of the student who had spoken, a male teen wearing the solid blue uniform of a first-year Obelisk Blue student, "I said that it had potential. Sometimes the deadliest strategies are the least commonly played ones, because few people have counter-measures for such a plan of attack."

"Well, I'm saying that this is a total and complete waste of time!" the student replied, standing up from his seat, "I could be pounding other students into the dirt and improving my ranking right now, but instead I'm stuck doing absolutely nothing in this stupid class! Give me one reason I shouldn't just skip out on this stupid class right now!"

Something flashed in Giyan's eyes momentarily, and then he closed them, briefly shaking his head as he did so. "I suppose there's always one," he murmured, pulling a deck from his pocket and adding the Shien's Spy card to it. "Very well, I'll give you a reason. If you stay here for the next few minutes, and face me in a duel, I'll make you a deal. This deck is built around the card I've just shown you, so if you can defeat it, it will mean my teaching about it would be totally pointless. Therefore, I'll immediately excuse you from my class with a perfect score for the remainder of the semester. However, if you lose, you'll sit down and shut up whenever you're in my class for the same period of time."

The student grinned as he heard the offer, and immediately began to descend to the raised platform, activating his Duel Disk as he went. "A deck built around that sorry excuse for a card? Too easy…" He ran a hand through his hair, a shock of black strands that had been dyed blonde at the tips, as he passed directly to the side of Takashi, Izumi, and the others.

"Ooh…" Jin murmured as the Obelisk Blue student walked by, "that coat of his is so much nicer than ours…Obelisk Blue sure gets some awesome-looking uniforms."

"It makes him look like an effing butler," Gnash muttered under his breath.

Jin snorted in response. "You just have no sense of class, that's all. Hey…what's with your arm? It looks like you've got an ink stain on your elbow. What's up with that?"

Gnash looked down at the left elbow of his Ra Yellow uniform, which seemed to have turned a dark grey color inexplicably. The pale-skinned teen merely shrugged, and said, "I don't know. I told you yellow's not my color…" He barely caught Junsei staring at him strangely out of the corner of his eye.

At the front of the classroom, Giyan had just finished fitting the demonstration deck he had constructed just a few hours before into his Duel Disk. "I will warn you," he stated, "I do not plan to spare you any humiliation in this duel. As I said, I will use any of the tools at my disposal to enforce my class, and public embarrassment is a widely-employed technique by teachers." (Giyan LP: 4000)

"Yeah yeah," the Obelisk Blue rolled his yellow eyes in response, pulling six cards free from his deck, "Act all cool and confident however the hell much you want, Lephoia, it won't do you any good when I stomp all over you. I'm Hotaka Seijitsu, and I'm going to crush your so-called 'potential'!" (Hotaka LP: 4000) He concluded this statement by slapping a card on top of his Duel Disk horizontally, causing a large, glowing green egg to appear in front of him. "I summon Miracle Jurassic Egg (0/2000) in defense mode, and then set a card facedown. That ends my turn."

"Then I'll draw," Giyan responded, slipping a sixth card free from his deck, "and to respond to your egg, I summon Griggle (350/300) in defense mode." With a squeak, a tiny, orange, spherical creature with long green hair and bright blue shoes appeared in front of the teacher, sitting down.

"…What's with the oompa-loompa?" Jin uttered, confused.

"I then activate my key spell card," Giyan continued, "Shien's Spy will now give control of my Griggle to you for the duration of the turn." The small creature stood up at his words, and waddled over to stand next to the Miracle Jurassic Egg in front of Hotaka. Then it turned around to look at Giyan, and began to glow a bright blue color. An aura of the same shade surrounded Giyan as it did so, and his life point counter began to beep as it grew higher. "When control of Griggle shifts to the opponent, I gain three thousand life points," he explained (Giyan LP: 7000), "so with this new boost, I'll just set a card facedown before ending my turn. And Griggle now comes back to me."

Hotaka rolled his eyes as the strange little creature walked back to Giyan's field. "Whatever. I draw!" he smirked as he immediately thrust the card into his Duel Disk, and pulled two more cards free. "You might think pulling off cute little combos is impressive, but I prefer just using cards that get the job done on their own. Pot of Greed lets me draw two more cards! And now I'll go on my assault, first by using Gilasaurus's effect to special summon it from my hand (1400/400)!" With a battle cry that was halfway between a screech and a roar, a brown-scaled velociraptor leapt onto the field, bearing its teeth at Giyan's Griggle, which squeaked and cowered in fear. "Next, I activate my facedown card," Hotaka continued, as the set card flipped up, "Fossil Excavation lets me discard a card from my hand and then summon a dinosaur from my graveyard to the field, minus its effect. So I'll discard Sabersaurus (1900/500), and then summon it!" The ground next to the Gilasaurus swelled, then burst upwards as a bright red quadruped dinosaur with a horn tipping its snout and a large, bony neck frill rose up with a loud, throaty groan. "And that's not the end of it," Hotaka stated, plucking up the two cards he had just fit into his Duel Disk, "I'll now sacrifice both these dinosaurs to summon my mighty Dark Tyranno (2600/1800)!" Both the new reptiles vanished, and in their place rose a brown-scaled tyrannosaurus rex, which roared in challenge at Giyan as the teacher looked on, seemingly unimpressed.

"Heh, a big two-sacrifice monster on his second turn," Naoki commented, putting a hand to his chin, "and he did it the hard way, too. Not that it's anywhere near as cool as one of my Fusions, but…"

"That's…" a sweatdrop appeared on Sayuri's head, and she gulped audibly, "a really big monster…"

"There's more to his move than getting out a big attacker," observed Jin, "look at that egg of his." As Jin said this, the Miracle Jurassic Egg began to glow more brightly, and six shimmering points of light began to circle its circumference.

"Miracle Jurassic Egg's effect," Hotaka stated with a smirk, "it gains two counters each time a dinosaur is sent to my graveyard. I discarded Sabersaurus to activate Fossil Excavation, and then sacrificed both it and Gilasaurus. That makes three dinosaurs that went to the graveyard, for a total of six counters. But that doesn't come into play until later, so for now, Dark Tyranno will attack! And because your only monster is in defense mode, he can bypass it and go straight for your life points!" With a roar, the immense saurian took a pair of great strides and lowered its head to bite into Giyan…only to stumble and miss its target by mere inches.

Looking a ways downward, one could see what had happened: the Griggle had panicked, and attempted to run from Giyan's field as the tyrannosaurus attacked. What resulted was the small creature bumping into the dinosaur's leg, causing the creature to stumble very slightly. As the Dark Tyranno missed biting into Giyan, the Griggle continued running, eventually ending up on Hotaka's field. "I activate my facedown trap card," Giyan stated, as he became surrounded by a blue aura again, "Internal Sabotage negates one attack at the cost of giving control of one monster on my field to you for the duration of the turn. And of course, I gain life points because I gave you control of Griggle (Giyan LP: 10000)."

Hotaka scowled at seeing his attack so easily avoided and used against him, but nonetheless continued his turn. "I'll finish up with two cards facedown. Take your turn."

"It would seem you've still got much to learn," Giyan calmly stated as he drew, "I've easily built up a large advantage in life points, all without wasting too many cards to do so, while your investment in your monsters just isn't paying off. I set one card facedown and summon Ameba (300/350) in attack mode before ending my turn. Soon, it will be over, and you'll return to your proper place." As he spoke the last sentence, a cluster of odd blue mold appeared on his field, wobbling slightly.

"I'll show you what my true place is!" Hotaka shouted as he drew, "It's not beneath you, that's for sure! I summon to the field Baby Ceratosaurus (500/500)!" Another dinosaur appeared in front of the duelist, this one a small green-scaled thing that could only be described as a hatchling- bits of the shell of its egg were stuck to its body. "But it's not here for long…I discard the last card in my hand to activate Raigeki Break, destroying my own Baby Ceratosaurus!" A murmur of confusion rose up amongst the other students, as a bolt of lightning struck down the small dinosaur, causing it to explode with a yelp of pain. "When Ceratosaurus is destroyed by an effect while face-up, I can summon a level four or lower dinosaur from my deck," Hotaka explained, another red-scaled dinosaur rising up on his field, "so here's another Sabersaurus (1900/500)! In addition…" he turned to the Miracle Jurassic Egg, which now had eight total points of light swirling about its shell, "my egg is finally ready to hatch! I sacrifice Miracle Jurassic Egg to summon a dinosaur straight from my deck with a level equal to or less than the number of counters on it! Come on out…" The egg suddenly exploded, bits of shell flying everywhere as a reptile with jagged, black scales emerged, standing even larger than the Dark Tyranno next to it. The creature bellowed to announce its presence as Hotaka declared its name, "Ultimate Tyranno (3000/2200)!"

"The strongest dinosaur in the game…" Takashi murmured as he and the others looked on, and the brown-haired teen clasped his hands together before resting his chin on them, "Hotaka's been planning to summon this monster since the beginning of the duel, when he summoned that egg of his…he's quite good."

"Ultimate Tyranno must attack all of my opponent's monsters at the start of the battle phase," Hotaka declared, motioning forward with an arm, "so let's start the assault! Crush his Griggle!" The named creature squeaked in fear, and tried briefly to run before the tremendous reptile ended its struggles with a simple stomp of its foot. "Keep going! Kill that Ameba! Absolute Bite!" the Ultimate Tyranno responded with a roar, and stooped down to simply swallow down the bizarre creature. "And here's where you pay for putting that thing in attack mode!"

"Really?" Giyan questioned with a quirk of his eyebrow, "I'm quite sure it's actually going to pay off quite nicely for me. I activate my facedown card, Dimensional Tunnel – Mirror Gate!" An odd barrier appeared in front of his Ameba, distorting its image as well as Ultimate Tyranno's, as it was constructed from glass and consisted of a large number of surfaces, as a crystal would be. "This trap card switches control of our monsters, and then continues the battle. And I'll have you know, when control of Ameba switches to the opponent, it deals you two thousand damage. Combined with the battle damage that will result from its being destroyed by Ultimate Tyranno…and this duel is over." But as Giyan finished, he was surprised as the Mirror Gate suddenly shattered, allowing Ultimate Tyranno to simply tear Ameba to shreds (Giyan LP: 7300).

Hotaka grinned triumphantly, motioning to the card on his field that had just flipped up. "What, do you really think I'm that stupid?" he questioned, "Jurassic Heart negates and destroys one trap card that targets a dinosaur, so your little trick fails, and now you've got nothing left to hide behind!" Sabersaurus and Dark Tyranno let out simultaneous roars, and stampeded towards Giyan. One bite and one gore later, and the teacher was much worse for the wear (Giyan LP: 2800). "I can't finish it yet, but it's almost over, that much you can count on! Next turn I'll win this! End turn!"

"You're making the faulty assumption that I'll be letting you last another turn," Giyan remarked coldly, drawing a card from his deck, "I happen to have a teaching resume that I'm rather proud of, and I'm not about to let that change by having one of my students walk out of my class still refusing to learn from me."

The comment prompted an eye-roll from the Obelisk Blue student. "You're really sounding like this is some matter of pride or something. Look, if you just admit there was no point to this stupid 'lesson' of yours, then we can call this a draw and maybe I'll still bother showing up to your waste-of-time class."

"I cannot allow that," Giyan stated, plucking a card from his three-card hand and placing it on his Duel Disk, "because you have not yet learned your lesson. I summon The Immortal of Thunder (1400/1300)." His new monster was a blue-skinned, elderly man with a scruffy white beard. The Immortal wore red robes, and carried a staff tipped with a golden ornament resembling a crescent moon with a lightning bolt striking through it. "Next, I'll demonstrate the purpose of this lesson, by defeating you with the card you chose to mock…Shien's Spy gives control of my monster to you."

"Again with this…" Hotaka muttered, dipping his head into his open palm as the blue-skinned man walked to stand on his field. "So what? You're going to gain some more life points? I can just smash through them next turn too, my dinosaurs have enough attack points to spare."

"Actually, Immortal of Thunder has no effect that applies when control of him changes," Giyan stated, playing the last card in his hand. "I activate Fissure, destroying the monster on your field with the lowest attack." Immediately, the ground beneath The Immortal of Thunder immediately crumbled and sank away, causing him to fall with a cry of anguish into the earth.

"…So you burned up three cards to do absolutely nothing," Hotaka dead-panned, now looking simply annoyed. "Wow, that's really impressive, Sensei."

Giyan wagged a finger at the student, "You still haven't heard about Immortal's effect. Giyan wagged a finger at the student, "You still haven't heard about Immortal's effect. You see, he has two abilities, the first being a powerful life point gain. When flipped face-up, his controller gains three thousand life points." Giyan's eyes narrowed here, and Hotaka jerked in surprise as a ghostly figure resembling the Immortal rose up from where he had fallen. "However, few if any duelists play The Immortal of Thunder because his second ability offsets this gain. When sent from the field to the graveyard…his controller takes five thousand points of damage." With that, Giyan turned and walked away from Hotaka, as the ghostly figure raised his staff and pointed it at Hotaka. "Of course, when The Immortal was destroyed, he wasn't under my control, now was he?" Hotaka yelled in pain as electricity surged from the Immortal's staff and struck him, sending him flying backwards several feet before he crashed unceremoniously to the ground (Hotaka LP: 0).

As his student groaned and stumbled to his feet, Giyan turned to the rest of the class, and raised his voice to an authoritative level. "Learn from this experience, students," he stated, scanning the class as he did so, "do not make the same mistake as the one you have just witnessed. Dismiss no strategy as weak, heed the warnings of your teachers, and pay attention in my class, because some of the other things I say just might turn out to be useful to you in a pinch." He turned slightly, more towards the defeated Hotaka, and said, "Oh, and Mister Seijitsu, for your information…we will begin studying more 'commonly played' strategies starting tomorrow. Will you be able to fit us into your busy schedule?" Hotaka scowled in response to the remark, but begrudgingly nodded. "Good," Giyan turned back to the class, and just as the bell rang, uttered, "Class dismissed."

* * *

What? A six-turn duel? A thirteen-page chapter? From me? How shocking…but hey, it only took me a week to write, in between sleeping to ungodly hours and spending craploads of time with my friends, so I'm satisfied. It feels good to have Giyan back in my cast, and I hope I managed to please some of my older readers with his appearance. In other news, this is the first chapter submitted from my new laptop (which I loves so much...), so yay for that.

_The first week of classes has now concluded, and the first weekend of the school year now commences! But more trouble is brewing…Junsei, already suspicious of Gnash's odd appearance and behavior, spots the dark teen performing a strange ritual in the middle of the night, and decides to investigate. But what will happen when their confrontation ends up on the dueling field?_

_Next Time: Exorcism! The Pure Priestess Descends!_


	6. Exorcism! The Pure Priestess Descends!

A waiting period two days longer than the last one means you get a chapter ten pages longer. Good deal? I think so. Enjoy!

**Part the Clouds  
****Chapter Six: Exorcism! The Pure Priestess Descends!**

Time in school has a funny way of speeding up and slowing down at inconsistent intervals. First period never seems to end, the final period is even longer, and breaks between classes and lunch obviously last much less time than the daily schedule indicates. Yet somehow, at the end of the week, the days seem to have flown by quite quickly, and the two-day break that is awarded to those who are patient enough to wait for it seems like an eternity. Until it ends, of course, and then it feels like it wasn't very long at all. In any case, it was now Saturday morning…more specifically, four o'clock in the morning. Duelist Academy, along with the island that it stood upon, was completely silent.

Completely silent, that is, until a student walked out into the darkness, her shoes scuffling along the ground as she went. For Junsei Nisou was restless. _'I suppose I'm still used to the daily routine back at the temple,'_ she thought to herself, heading towards a clearing a short distance north of the Osiris Red dorms as she had done the past several days. The location was quiet and peaceful, unlike her room, which was far from a place of harmony thanks to the snores of her roommate Izumi. The clearing was a good place to relax, and prepare herself for the day ahead. Not to mention, it was a good way to avoid going out of her mind with boredom. So it was that she had come here yet again, this time carrying a flashlight and a good book with which she would occupy herself. She was not afraid of discovery at a time long after the academy's curfew, because in the past several occasions she had made this late-night venture, she had not encountered a soul.

This was the reason why Junsei very nearly fell over in shock when she reached her destination on this particular night and saw that a person was already occupying the area. Fearing discovery, Junsei quickly and quietly ducked behind a tree, and took a few moments to make several deep, panicked inhalations. Following this, she peeked around the trunk of the tree at the person, who was hunched over in the middle of the clearing. Junsei quickly recognized Gnash even from the rear and in the darkness, due to his very odd hairstyle. The student had abandoned his Ra Yellow uniform temporarily in favor of a sleeveless black shirt and baggy pants, the clothing contrasting sharply with his pale skin.

'_What could he possibly be doing out here?'_ Junsei thought to herself, immediately suspicious. The girl naturally did not consider that she would probably look suspicious herself if anyone noticed her ducking behind trees at four in the morning, but that was beside the point. Junsei peered into the darkness at Gnash, noticing that something on the other side of him was glowing faintly. In addition, something was placed beside him on the ground, which she couldn't quite make out from her vantage point. Lastly, Gnash was muttering something, in a dialect she couldn't interpret, and after speaking for a few moments, he made an odd sign with his hands in the air, before the light in front of him went out, and he stood up.

Junsei held her breath as Gnash walked away, heading back to the Ra Yellow dorms. When she was sure he had gone, the girl ran with all the speed she could muster back to her own dorm. After managing to get inside without hitting the door or its frame dashing in, she only barely resisted the urge to slam it shut behind her. _'I almost can't believe it!'_ she mentally screamed to herself, sitting down on her bed with a small plop, _'I knew he looked strange in class, but after last month, I didn't want to jump to any conclusions. But this…this is a very serious matter, I can tell! Oh, if only the others were here…then again, they probably wouldn't try to help me…But I can't charge into this situation blindly! I have to figure out what it wants…and then, when it's prepared to reveal itself, I'll strike!'_

The short girl finished her thoughts with a decisive nod and a fist pump, punctuated by a loud snore from Izumi's bed.

* * *

Morning came. Okay, so it was already morning, technically…so…um…

…

Dawn came. Jin greeted the sun this time with a content smile rather than a scream of complaint, and positively leapt out of bed. His good mood was almost spoiled when he saw that Takashi was still sleeping away, but he managed to keep his spirits up relatively easily…by making sure Takashi stopped having a peaceful rest. "Come on, Takashi! It's eight in the morning, time to wake up and greet the weekend!" Ignoring his roommate, Takashi simply mumbled and turned over, bringing a pillow over his head in the process. In return, Jin snapped up the blinds over the window, and soaked in the sun's rays. "Ah…doesn't it feel good, knowing we can just enjoy the beautiful day without being holed up inside a classroom taking lessons? Nothing against our teachers, but they simply can't compare to the wonderful sensation of freedom I get…" He spun around, casting his arms into the air as if to welcome in the air around him. "A glorious Saturday after a week of school is like…like a beautiful rainbow after a long and gloomy storm! …In fact, speaking of rainbows, I think I'll celebrate this event with…Skittles!"

With that said, the silver-haired teen suddenly dove under his bed, and began tossing out various objects, including a large number of used clothes, all the while mumbling such things as "Now where did I put my stash…" A minute or so later, Jin emerged with a triumphant, "Aha!" A red package of candy was clutched in his right hand, and a look of glee graced his face briefly before he caught sight of Gnash out of the corner of his eye. The third occupant of their room was dressed in his uniform, sans the Ra Yellow jacket, and his headphones covered his ears as usual. "Oh, uh…good morning Gnash," Jin said, "how long have you been there?"

Gnash stared unblinkingly through his hair at Jin for a few moments before giving his answer. He might have spoken it sooner had Jin not gotten tired of waiting after approximately seven millionths of a second and torn the Skittles bag open before popping several of the candy pellets into his mouth. "Few hours," he eventually said.

"That's a little unusual," Takashi commented, though his words were distorted by a yawn, as he was still quite groggy. He glanced at Jin, saw the bag in his hands, and reached towards it as he continued speaking, "What were you doing up so early anyways?"

Before he could get an answer, Jin's eyes flashed, and he slapped Takashi's hand away. "My Skittles! Mine!"

Takashi blinked. "I'm sorry. Could I please just have a fe-" Jin's disapproving hiss cut him off, and the silver-haired teen possessively held the package against his chest to protect it. "Alright, alright, I'm sorry…" As the exchange occurred, Gnash went back to his music without another word, and the fact that Takashi's question hadn't been answered was forgotten.

* * *

"…And _then_, he tried to steal my _Skittles_!" Izumi let out a gasp as Jin finished divulging all the hardships he had suffered in the past week while living in the same room as Takashi. Such hardships included waking up in time to get breakfast and Takashi not caring about half the problems he talked about. But Izumi appeared to be taking full interest and concern in everything Jin told her, which greatly pleased the silver-haired teen.

"Taka-kun!" Izumi said to her friend in a scolding voice. "It's not nice to steal! You should know better!" Over the past several days, Izumi and Jin had connected quite quickly, likely as a result of their shared enthusiasm for various things.

Takashi rolled his eyes as he responded, "Give me a break, I didn't think he'd be so protective. Besides, it was a few pieces of candy, hardly grand theft. And I told you to stop calling me that."

"So?" Izumi questioned with a blink, "What's that got to do with you stealing his candy? Oh! I know! It's because you don't want people to think you have an alias, so you can get away with it more easily!" Her eyes flashed with realization, as if she had just received enlightenment into a complex matter.

"…" Takashi's mouth sagged open, so absolutely confused by Izumi's logic that he could not form the words to respond. Sayuri looked equally lost, and even Jin was staring with squinted eyes into space as he tried to figure out from which distant galaxy Izumi had drawn her conclusion from. Naoki was shaking with mirth as he painfully tried to contain his own laughter. Eventually, Takashi managed, "That doesn't make any sense. Ever."

As Izumi began to explain, in a very extended and further confusing process, exactly how she had come to 'understand' the situation, two of the seven present continued to not pay any attention whatsoever. The first was Gnash, who was sitting silently as his headphones pulsed. Though his head was tilted slightly downwards, allowing his hair to continue to cover most of his face, Junsei, who was in turn staring at him, could tell he was once again concentrating his gaze on Sayuri. As the girl with two ponytails thought more on it, Gnash _had_ been looking at the nervous girl a good amount the past several days. _'I wonder…'_ she silently thought, _'if Sayuri has anything to do with…if that's the case, then I'll have to make sure he doesn't have the chance to harm her.'_

She was brought out of her thoughts by Jin, who had spoken her name. "What?" she asked, startled, as she naturally had not been paying attention to him.

"I said," Jin answered, not affected by her lack of attention in the slightest, "that you and Sayuri inspired me by bending the rules of the dress code. As you might have seen, I too have modified my uniform." He jumped up from his seated position, and turned in a circle, revealing that his jacket now had long tails, like those of the male Obelisk Blue uniform. "Pretty stylish, ne?"

"Great," Gnash said in a mumble, though still loudly enough to be heard, "now you can be a butler too. Good for you."

Jin whirled on his roommate with a glare and a pointed finger. "You be quiet, Gnash!" he shot back, "I look fashionable in this uniform! Dashing! Grandiose! _Ritzy_, even!Don't you know that clothes make the man?"

Gnash stared at him for a few moments, before making his return comment, "Considering I just said you look like a butler, that's one of the worst comebacks ever."

"He makes a good point," Naoki said with a nod and an amused smile, which prompted an angry look from Jin. Naoki quickly made his face appear more neutral.

"Gnash has no right to judge one's clothing!" Jin declared, whirling back on the teen with a pointed finger, "Just look at how he cares for his own! Gnash, you've hardly had that uniform for a week, and already it's stained in half a dozen places. How is that even possible? It's not like you do a lot of dirty work."

Jin's words were quite true – Gnash's once-purely yellow jacket was now besmirched by a number of streaks of dark gray. In addition to the one on the back of his left elbow, which had extended to reach the end of his sleeve, a number of streaks marked his collar, right side, back, and chest. Gnash shrugged in response, in the process emphasizing a dark mark on the top of his right shoulder, and slipped his headphones from his ears to allow them to hang around his neck. "I don't know, alright?" he answered, "I don't care if you don't listen to my opinion just because I don't write for some crappy fashion magazine, I just feel like I have to tell you that you look like a moron, especially since you think you look snappy." He stood up, turning away from Jin to indicate that the conversation was over, and suddenly addressed Sayuri, "Hey, Sayuri…mind if I have a word?"

The question was met with a number of surprised looks and raised eyebrows, plus one stern gaze from Junsei and a gasp of exclamation from Sayuri. Eventually, however, the girl trembled slightly, and nodded. Gnash jerked his head in a motion for her to follow, and Sayuri stood up, walking after the red-eyed student. After the two had walked some distance away, by which time conversation had resumed amongst the others, Junsei stood as well, and with a quick, "Excuse me," followed after.

Junsei was not all too surprised when, after following a safe distance behind the two to stay out of sight, she saw Gnash lead Sayuri into the clearing where she had spotted him earlier. After taking a nervous swallow, Junsei ducked into the bushes, and watched the two quietly, hoping she wouldn't be detected. Fortunately, Gnash and Sayuri appeared deep in conversation, though she had no idea what they were discussing, as they were a good distance out of earshot, and Gnash, being the taller of the two, had his back to her, meaning she couldn't make out any facial expressions. _'However, that's not too important,'_ she thought decisively, watching intently, _'I just have to make sure she's not in danger while nobody else is around…although I might not be prepared to confront him, it will be up to me to protect Sayuri if she becomes endangered.'_

Several minutes later, Junsei let out a sigh of relief, as the confrontation had not resulted in her interference being required. Gnash and Sayuri soon departed the clearing, in opposite directions, with Sayuri heading straight towards Junsei. When she was certain that Gnash was out of earshot, Junsei burst up out of the bushes as Sayuri walked by, causing the other girl to jump in surprise. "Sayuri!" Junsei said urgently, "What was he talking to you about?"

"N-n-no-nothing!" the other girl spluttered nervously, "W-what are you doing here, Junsei?"

"Never mind that!" Junsei grabbed Sayuri by the shoulders, and glared fiercely into the other girl's eyes. "Did he threaten you? Tell you to meet him somewhere later? _Anything!?_"

Sayuri's face was distorted by a mixture of extreme shock and confusion. "No! No!" she insisted, attempting and failing to sink away from Junsei, "He-he just said he thought I looked, um, weird, and gave me some advice, and-"

"Oh, this is pointless!" Junsei exclaimed, shoving Sayuri away and walking off, "I can't get any useful information this way…So I'll just have to take a risk and take care of this immediately, the old-fashioned way!" Soon, she was a good distance away, headed for the Osiris Red girls' dorm.

"…What just happened?" a bewildered Sayuri asked of nobody in particular.

* * *

Gnash had returned to the Ra Yellow dorms, having concluded that there was nothing else worth doing at the moment. And so he was sitting on his bed, once again listening to music and waiting for the day to pass. He had been expecting an uneventful day, perhaps interrupted by Jin or Takashi returning to the room as well…and so was caught off-guard when his PDA buzzed in his pocket. Gnash blinked, and turned his cd-player off before reaching into his pocket and pulling the managing device out. The buzz had sounded to indicate that he had just received a text message, and an anonymous one at that. "What the hell is this?" he muttered to himself, before reading it.

'_To the one who calls himself 'Gnash',_

_Meet me at 4:00 pm today at the clearing north of the Osiris Red dorms. You know which one I'm talking about.'_

"Well, that's…kinda weird," Gnash mumbled, putting his PDA away. He looked over at the room's lone clock; it read 3:38 pm. Shrugging, the teen grabbed his jacket from where it hung at the foot of his bed, and tugged it on. After a few moments of silent consideration, Gnash reached under his bed, and pulled out the Duel Disk that sat there. "Mysterious, disrespectful email in the middle of the day telling me to meet them somewhere at Duelist Academy…" he muttered to himself, sliding the device over his right arm, "better come prepared."

* * *

"This had better be worth it," Gnash found himself mumbling as he removed his headphones from his ears, having just arrived at the clearing. It was soon 4:00 in the afternoon, and Gnash found himself standing in the middle of the clearing with nothing to do. "…Great," he finally muttered, turning to walk back to his room again, "thanks for wasting my time, whoever you are you jacka-"

He didn't get the chance to complete the syllable, as suddenly four wooden rods shot up out of the grass around him, having been drawn up by a complex system of wires and pulleys which quickly became visible to him as he looked about in surprise. The rods formed the corners of a box that surrounded Gnash completely, and their tips were connected as well. Upon closer inspection, a line of paper, which had been folded into a line of small rectangles, arranged to form a zigzag pattern, dangled from each set of two posts. "…What the hell is this?" Gnash asked aloud, admittedly and understandably confused beyond belief. His attention was caught when a figure stepped out of hiding in the nearby bushes, voicing a cry of triumph. Gnash blinked as he recognized the newcomer, "Junsei?"

Indeed, Junsei Nisou now revealed herself, although she looked much different than she had in her and Gnash's previous encounters. She now wore a white robe with loose sleeves, red hakama, and white socks and sandals – attire appropriate for a Shinto priestess. Additionally, she carried a staff in her right hand, from which dangled several more strips of the paper that had been drawn up around Gnash. As she stepped up to Gnash, Junsei smirked, and said, "It's over, demon! Now release the boy, or I'll drag you out of him by force!"

"…" Gnash's mouth hung open, as he was so bewildered that he couldn't quite force his voice to form the message he wanted to convey to Junsei into an articulate form. However, his eyes, in narrowing angrily, did a good enough job on their own: _'What the hell are you talking about, you stuffy little midget?'_ Of all of this, his lips, tongue, and throat only barely managed to combine their abilities into delivering a percentage of the message: "…the hell?"

"Don't try to play dumb!" Junsei warned, shaking her staff at him, "It won't get me to let you out of there! I know you've possessed that innocent student, it's completely obvious! The dark aura, the red eyes, the angry behavior…and you're going to try to use him to do something to Sayuri! You despicable monster…I won't allow you to harm either of them any longer!" She approached Gnash, raising her staff as she did so.

"…Okay, you're not making any sense," Gnash concluded as Junsei finished speaking, "I don't know if this is some kind of joke, or if you're just crazy, but I really don't feel like putting up with this at the moment. I'm going back to my dorm." As he said this, he raised his arm to casually brush away the strand of paper that stood in his path as he moved to leave. However, as he did so, a slight shock passed through his hand, prompting him to yank it away.

"It's not so simple," Junsei stated, now waving her staff a number of times in Gnash's face, "the _Shide_ that I've arranged will keep you caged within this area, until I've completed the purification and banished you from this boy's body. So now, begone, evil spirit!" The command was accompanied by a number of emphatic waves of the staff over Gnash's head, causing the _Shide_ attached to it to brush his face several times.

"_Hijo de puta…"_ Gnash muttered, before his hand snapped up and grabbed the staff, preventing Junsei from waving it any more. "Will you CUT THAT OUT!?" He ripped the staff from her hands, then tossed it over his shoulder. "Now quit screwing around and let me leave, you crazy witch!" He ended the final sentence by grabbing the _Shide_ line separating him from Junsei and, ignoring the slight shock that coursed through his hands, tearing it in half. "I'm not some demon or whatever the hell you think I am. All I am is REALLY PISSED OFF AT YOU!"

Junsei stepped back in shock, as Gnash stepped forward angrily. Her eyes went wide, as suddenly she noticed a dark spot on his jacket spring into existence. _'I have to stop him!'_ she thought, panic-stricken, suddenly reaching into the sleeve of her robe. "If the normal ritual won't work, I'll just use a more forceful method!" she exclaimed, her hand emerging from her sleeve as she lunged towards Gnash. Her mad rush allowed her to tackle the larger teen, and pin him for a brief moment, all the time she needed to strike her hand against his forehead, sticking a piece of paper marked with a series of kanji there. "Behold the force of the purifying _O-fuda_! By the power I hold as a Miko of the Miyazaki Shrine, I hereby command you, vile demon! BEGONE!"

Following this rather showy display, a few moments of silence passed before Junsei spoke again. "Rudy Jameson? Are you alright? Do not worry, I have cleansed you of the evil that called itself 'Gnash', you will be fine now."

"…Alright, first of all, stop calling me that," came the response from the teen pinned beneath her, "both that name, and a demon. Secondly, what was that whole thing supposed to do, anyway?" Junsei let out a gasp of horror as Gnash reached up, and tore the paper from his forehead. He then threw her off himself, and stood up, now towering over the already shorter girl who was now left cowering on the ground.

"No…no!" Junsei cried, backing away from Gnash as quickly as she could, "How is it that you haven't been expelled? I must not be powerful enough…"

"Or it could be that I'm not possessed by an evil spirit," Gnash retorted with a sneer, "but no, that would mean you were wrong, now wouldn't it?"

Ignoring this comment, Junsei got to her feet, and steadied herself, now standing stoutly as Gnash approached her. "If I cannot banish you by force, then…" she gulped, still looking very much afraid of Gnash, yet at the same time determined, "then I'll make a deal with you. I challenge you to a duel, and if I win, you'll leave Rudy and Sayuri alone! But…if I lose…"

"You'll leave me the hell alone," Gnash finished, through clenched teeth, "whatever, this is pointless, I'll do whatever it takes for you to just go away."

Once again, Gnash's input was ignored. "If I lose, I will sacrifice myself to whatever evil intentions you may have!" Junsei finished, whipping a Duel Disk out of seemingly nowhere and sliding it onto her arm (Junsei LP: 4000).

"…Are you even listening to anything I'm saying?" Gnash asked, as Junsei drew six cards from her deck, "I just want you to leave me alone. I don't want to eat your soul or anything cliché like that, this is all some weird delusion of yours you crazy little zealot. This isn't Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you can't just go around trying to purge people or… Oh, whatever, forget it. The sooner I beat you, the sooner I get out of this stupid situation." His Duel Disk clicked on, and he drew an opening hand of five cards (Gnash LP: 4000).

"I won't fail…" Junsei whispered, before placing a card on her Duel Disk, "I begin this duel by summoning Artemis of Harvest (1600/1700) in attack mode!" Junsei's monster could best be described as a robot manufactured to resemble an angel. Artemis had a thin body covered in a glimmering metal of some kind, as well as a pair of large wings that extended from beneath a purple cloak. "In addition, I set three cards facedown, before ending my turn."

Gnash narrowed his eyes as he drew. _'Counter Angels…'_ he thought to himself, recognizing the monster Junsei had summoned, _'I should try to be careful.'_ Before he could make a move, however, Junsei had already motioned to one of her set cards.

"I activate my facedown permanent trap card," she declared, the card flipping up, depicting a metallic angel akin to Artemis of Harvest, with a blue and white color scheme. "Synthetic Angel. Continue your turn, demon."

"Shut up with the demon crap," Gnash said, his hair parting so he could shoot a sharp glare at his opponent. "As for my turn, I'll set two cards facedown, as well as a monster in defense mode. That will do it for me."

"Hiding your strategy from me, I see," Junsei commented with a sneer as she snapped a card from her deck, "I should have expected a cowardly style like that, to hide your true intentions. But it doesn't matter…I summon Apollo of Power (1300/1400) to join Artemis!" Another metallic angel appeared on Junsei's field, this one bearing an orange cloak. In addition, Apollo's wings were composed of light, rather than metal. "Now, Artemis will attack your facedown monster!" The first angel raised its arms, forming a bow of light between them, before firing an arrow at Gnash's defending monster. The monster was revealed shortly before the arrow struck its target, and Junsei let out a gasp of surprise at its appearance.

Gnash's monster was a human…who looked surprisingly like Gnash himself. The same long dark hair, the same pale skin…the similarities were striking. However, Gnash's monster was slightly taller and ganglier than himself, and wore predominantly black clothing rather than a Ra Yellow uniform – a sleeveless shirt, baggy pants, sneakers, and two straps buckled about the wrists. In addition, the monster had a faint black aura surrounding it, and seemed to actually be exuding darkness. "My monster is Eternal Loner (1000/1000)," Gnash introduced, before his doppelganger was struck in the chest by the arrow, prompting a grunt of pain. However, rather than immediately falling, the Loner lifted his head…and shot a glare at Artemis. The angel shuddered for a moment, before exploding. The Eternal Loner nodded, as if satisfied, before slumping to the ground, dead.

"What…what's going on?" Junsei asked, confused, "What happened to Artemis? Only your monster should have been destroyed, it was weaker."

Gnash snorted in response. "Weaker?" he asked, "I guess I should've expected an ignorant comment like that from you… After Eternal Loner battles a monster, following damage calculation, the opposing monster is destroyed. In addition, five hundred points of damage are dealt to that monster's controller."

Junsei gasped in surprise, as suddenly a circle of dark energy appeared on the ground around her, and she felt a momentary burst of pain as her life points fell (Junsei LP: 3500). Grimacing, she pointed a finger at Gnash, and Apollo of Power spread its wings. "Regardless," she said, "your defender has been removed from my path, so now I'll strike you down! Apollo attacks directly!" The angel's wings moved, gathering energy for a ranged attack…before, in mid-flap, the wings, along with the rest of Apollo's body, froze in place.

"Activate trap card," Gnash said in response, one of his set cards revealing itself, "Buying Time negates one direct attack and ends the battle phase, then allows me to pick up a monster from my graveyard and add it to my hand." He held up the Eternal Loner, which he had retrieved from his graveyard, before placing it amongst the other three cards in his hand.

"…Very well," Junsei submitted, playing one of the two cards remaining in her hand, "then I shall play Rebirth of Light, allowing me to summon one level four or lower angel of the light attribute from my graveyard or removed-from-play pile." Light flashed on her field, and once more the purple-cloaked angel appeared, flanking Apollo of Power. "Artemis of Harvest (1600/1700) returns. I end my turn."

"Draw," Gnash said, adding a fifth card to his hand. Immediately, the Eternal Loner (1000/1000) rose up on his field again, eyes safely hidden behind his long bangs. "I summon Eternal Loner again," Gnash stated, the explanation mostly unnecessary, "I then play the spell card, Leave Me Alone." Immediately, the Eternal Loner let out an angry growl, and his eyes snapped up to glare at both of Junsei's monsters, before the dark aura around his body burst outward. "All monsters on the field are treated as having just battled Eternal Loner. In other words…your monsters are both destroyed, and you'll take one thousand points of damage total."

Junsei frowned, and snapped her fingers. Immediately, the Eternal Loner's aura flickered, and retreated to his body, leaving her monsters unharmed. "Activate counter trap, Magic Jammer!" she declared, slipping the one card in her hand into her graveyard, "by discarding one card from my hand, I can negate and destroy one spell card." As she spoke this, both of her angels as well as her face-up Synthetic Angel card began to glow brightly. "Because a counter trap was activated, the effects of my cards now activate," she explained, "First, Artemis of Harvest allows me to draw a card." She drew once from her deck, replacing the card she had discarded to activate Magic Jammer. "Next, Apollo of Power gains six hundred attack and defense points," the orange-robed angel's wings began to glow more brightly, and expanded, now larger than before as the holy monster gained strength (1900/2000). "Lastly, Synthetic Angel allows me to summon one Synthetic Angel token (300/300) to the field, and I'll place it in defense mode." A metallic angel, exactly like the one depicted on the Synthetic Angel card, emerged in a crouch next to both Artemis and Apollo.

Gnash merely grunted in response, before motioning to his remaining set card. "I activate Spirit Barrier," he declared, a shimmering yellow partial sphere appearing just in front of him, "as long as this trap card remains on the field, all battle damage to my life points is reduced to zero as long as I control a monster. So now, Eternal Loner attacks Apollo of Power." At Gnash's words, the Eternal Loner stepped towards Junsei's strongest monster, and upon reaching it extended his hands to strangle the angel. However, before the Loner could make contact, a pink column of light shot up around Junsei's field, pushing the Loner back forcefully.

"I activate Negate Attack in response," Junsei announced, pointing to the revealed trap card, which now left her field empty of set cards. "Your attack is negated and the battle phase ends, and my cards' effects activate once again because Negate Attack was a counter trap." Immediately, she drew a second card, a second Synthetic Angel token (300/300) appeared on her field in defense, and Apollo's wings grew even larger (2500/2600).

"Fine," Gnash responded, sounding slightly annoyed but not a great deal more than he had been in the past several minutes, "I play Die Alone. By sending Eternal Loner from any location to my graveyard, I can treat one monster on the field as having battled him. I target Apollo of Power." Immediately, Eternal Loner departed from his field, fading into darkness and out of sight. When the monster had vanished completely, a black aura swept up around Apollo, before the angel was forcibly pulled into the ground and destroyed. Black energy coursed up around Junsei as well, causing the priestess to grit her teeth for a moment (Junsei LP: 3000). "I set one card facedown, and then end my turn," Gnash concluded, crossing his arms across his chest.

"I draw!" Junsei declared, recovering quickly from the slight pain induced by the effects of Gnash's plays. After a short pause, Junsei merely pointed her finger straight at her opponent, and all three of her remaining angels floated into the air, preparing to strike. "My monsters attack directly!" All three angels cupped their hands together, forming orbs of shimmering blue light, which they prepared to launch at Gnash. However, before any could do so, the pale teen's set card was shifting to face upward.

"I activate my facedown Call of the Haunted," Gnash declared, a hand bursting up from the ground in front of him. The Eternal Loner then began to claw his way upward, attempting to free himself from the earth, "I'll use it to revive Eternal Loner in attack mode."

"I think not," Junsei responded, and immediately a purple, shimmering figure appeared above the Call of the Haunted card. It was an angel, similar to Junsei's other monsters, but smaller, and more bulbous. A ray of purple light shot down from the small angel, causing the Call of the Haunted to fade to a dull gray color, then burst apart. Immediately, the partially-emerged Eternal Loner withered away and sank back into the ground. "By discarding Violet Declarer (300/500) and one other angel from my hand, I can negate and destroy one opposing trap card," Junsei explained, "So now that I've stopped your attempt to defend yourself, my angels will continue their attacks! Divine Assault!" Three bursts of light flashed out from the angels' hands, crashing into Gnash's chest and forcing him to his knees as he took the simultaneous blows (Gnash LP: 1800).

Junsei smirked confidently, before placing the last card in her hand into her Duel Disk. "I set one card facedown before ending my turn," she declared, "Soon it will be all over, demon, and Rudy Jameson will be free from your possession."

Gnash snarled as he drew, furiously shouting, "_Stop_ _calling me that_!" He angrily slammed a card into his Duel Disk, and reached for his graveyard as he declared, "I activate The Warrior Returning Alive, allowing me to return Eternal Loner from my graveyard to my hand because he's a warrior-type monster!"

"I can't allow that!" Junsei exclaimed, pressing a button on her Duel Disk, "Activate facedown card, Will of the Divine! By sacrificing one angel from my field, I can negate and destroy one spell card." Junsei pointed at one of her Synthetic Angel tokens, which vanished from the field amidst a burst of sparkling light, and the spell card that Gnash had just played immediately burst apart. "Will of the Divine is a counter trap, so the effects of Synthetic Angel and Artemis of Harvest activate once more. I draw a card and summon a Synthetic Angel token (300/300) in defense mode!" Junsei smirked, and raised her fist in triumph after drawing her card. "I've figured out your weakness, vile one," she stated, "the Eternal Loner has a dangerous effect, and a good number of your cards allow you to keep putting it into play and make it even more lethal. But the emphasis you've placed on summoning it repeatedly… The truth of the matter is, the Eternal Loner is the only monster in your deck, isn't it?" Gnash's eyes narrowed, but Junsei continued speaking on, "And that is your weakness – you place too much of your faith into that single monster, so if I can cut off your access to it, which I've just successfully done…then this duel will be an easy victory!"

Junsei's opponent was silent for a few moments as she gazed at him, already sensing that she was very close to winning. "I play Pot of Greed," were his only words, as he activated the commonly-played card and drew two new ones from his deck. Upon seeing one of the two, he immediately activated it, "Scrounging For Supplies allows me to shuffle any number of cards from my graveyard into my deck. For every four cards shuffled in, I draw one card afterwards. I choose to shuffle in my entire graveyard, seven cards total." He quickly pulled the handful of cards from his Duel Disk's graveyard slot, and mixed them in with the other cards of his deck.

"But that will only allow you to draw one card," Junsei stated, narrowing her eyes suspiciously, "what good can it do you?"

"Watch and see," Gnash replied, before shoving his newly-shuffled deck back into his Duel Disk. However, at first he did not draw a card. "Your assessment of my strategy," he stated, "was both right and wrong. It's true that Eternal Loner is the only monster in my deck, and the card is already limited to one copy per deck. It's also true that I rely a great deal on my ability to keep Eternal Loner on the field." He looked directly into Junsei's eyes, and she was forced to take a step back under the force of his gaze. "But unlike what you said," Gnash continued, "that focus is not a weakness…" He reached for the top card of his deck, and gripped the edge of it, "It's my strength." He pulled the card free forcefully, and for some reason, to Junsei's eyes, darkness seemed to pulse around him momentarily, while the dark spot on the front of his jacket grew longer. Gnash's eyes twitched to grab a glimpse of the card he had drawn, before he threw it onto his Duel Disk with a cry of, "I summon back to the field, Eternal Loner (1000/1000)!"

"It's…" Junsei's eyes widened as the gangly, darkness-exuding man reappeared, looking angry as ever, "It's impossible! The chances of you drawing it again just after shuffling it back into your deck- it- it can't be possible for you to have done that!"

"I told you," Gnash replied gruffly, "the fundamentality of Eternal Loner to the execution of my strategy…that's my greatest strength as a duelist." As he spoke, he glared holes into Junsei's own, and she could do nothing but stare back. She realized, after some amount of time, that the look in his eyes was different from before. The anger and hatred that normally rested there were still present, but this time, they were accompanied by…something else, which she couldn't quite figure out. Junsei's thought pattern was disrupted when Gnash continued speaking, "If you think you can win this by trying to pull Eternal Loner from my strategy, you're grasping at straws. I set one card facedown, before ending my turn."

"I don't care how useless you think my efforts are," Junsei said with a sneer as she drew, "I'm going to defeat you! First, I set one card facedown, and then…what are they?" Her last question was aimed towards a pair of brawny young men, wearing sports jackets, who had appeared on her field. "Are they…jocks?"

"Pretty close," Gnash answered, pointing at his newly-activated card, "They're tokens. Social Enforcer tokens (1000/1000), summoned by my trap card, Social Outcast. Normally this card summons three such tokens to the opponent's field, but because you only had two empty monster zones, the number of tokens was cut down as well."

Junsei narrowed her eyes at Gnash, not understanding why he had just given her a pair of free monsters. "Unlike Ojama tokens, these are generally quite useful to me, even if like most tokens they cannot be used for tribute. Why would you give them to me?" To her shock, both tokens immediately leapt towards Gnash's Eternal Loner, and began to pound on the thinner teen viciously. "What's going on? Why did they attack?"

"Social Enforcer tokens are forced to attack at the beginning of their controller's battle phase," Gnash explained evenly, even as his own monster was beaten on.

"Well, it still doesn't make sense that you'd summon them," Junsei stated, looking on in horror as the Social Enforcers continued to strike the Eternal Loner in a rather graphic matter. "One Social Enforcer will be destroyed because the Eternal Loner has an equal number of attack points, but the other and Artemis can simply attack directly to finish the duel." Her eyes widened as suddenly the violent display took an unexpected twist, the Eternal Loner catching hold of one Social Enforcer's wrist and squeezing it tightly, causing the bulky jock to cry out in pain. As the other token backed away fearfully, the Eternal Loner brought the first to his knees, before kicking his face in. Then the Loner turned on the second token, who attempted to run before being blown apart by the force of the glare that was directed towards his retreating back.

As a circle of black energy materialized around Junsei again, Gnash issued his explanation. "Social Enforcer tokens are capable of defeating monsters weaker than themselves, like most cowards are," he stated, as Junsei momentarily slumped over in pain (Junsei LP: 2000). "However, in an even fight, their true nature is revealed, and they fall easily. Because Social Enforcer tokens cannot destroy monsters in battle with attack points equal to their own."

"I see…"Junsei said, panting slightly. As she slowly came to her feet, she pondered the current situation. _'I could destroy Eternal Loner with Artemis,'_ she considered, _'but that would leave me with just my Synthetic Angels and one set card, not to mention five hundred less life points. I should try to keep my ability to draw cards for now, until I'm capable of striking him down.'_ She glanced briefly at the one card remaining in her hand, before looking up at Gnash and nodding, "I end my turn."

Gnash drew wordlessly, quickly glancing at the card he had drawn before playing it, "I play Loner's Contemplation, which can only be activated if Eternal Loner is face-up on my field. I can now draw three cards." Junsei grimaced as Gnash replenished his hand, now holding a total of four cards, one of which he played without hesitation. "I equip Eternal Loner with Mist Aura, which prevents the equipped monster from being destroyed in battle." As he activated the declared card, the Eternal Loner's body began to fade, some of it drifting away like fog, although it mostly retained its form.

"With both Mist Aura and Spirit Barrier active…" Junsei murmured, eyes widening with realization, "there are no drawbacks to it battling a monster stronger than itself, meaning you can freely use its effect to destroy my angels!"

"You're ignorant to a lot of things, but at least you pick up on strategy pretty easily," Gnash remarked, pointing at the purple-cloaked angel hovering in front of the Miko. "Eternal Loner attacks Artemis of Harvest." This time, Junsei could do nothing to stop the pale teen from clamping both hands about her monster's throat and beginning to squeeze. The angel soon managed to fight off its would-be strangler, and knock him away before firing a blast of light from its hands. However, the wave of light had no effect on the Eternal Loner, passing through his newly intangible body harmlessly. The attempted counter strike, however, prompted an angry glare from the Eternal Loner, causing Artemis to explode. "I set two cards facedown, before ending my turn," concluded Gnash.

The young Miko cried out in anguish as she fell to her knees, her life points once again ticking away (Junsei LP: 1500). _'I can't let this happen,'_ she thought, one of her hands tearing several blades of grass from the ground as she made a fist. _'I have to defeat him…I have to free Rudy…and protect Sayuri…and everyone else! Because I'm the only one who's aware of it, the only one who can stop it…I've got to win!'_ She stood up, wiping some dirt and grass from the knees of her hakama as she came to her feet. "I swear…I'll defeat you, Gnash! I draw!" and draw she did, with all the passion in her heart, and she was rewarded. _'If I can get him to activate a card, then I can…yes! It's all laid out for me…my faith has paid off, I'm going to win! I'm going to save them!'_ "This is it, Gnash!" she promised, laying a card on her Duel Disk. Immediately, a figure covered completely in ornate orange armor, with large metallic wings extending from the boots, and carrying a horn decorated with feathered wings, appeared in the air before her, announcing its arrival with a blow of the horn. "I summon Wisdom Angel Harvest (1800/1000)! And now…Harvest attacks the Eternal Loner!"

Gnash merely blinked as the orange-plated angel soared towards his sole monster, slightly perplexed. "I don't know why you think that will accomplish anything," he commented, "but it doesn't matter, because this duel's over. I activate my facedown card, Get Away From Me. This negates all battle damage dealt by monsters attacking Eternal Loner for this turn, and in addition, the controller of players attacking Eternal Loner is dealt three hundred points of damage times the attacking monsters' levels. Harvest is a level four monster, so after it battles Eternal Loner, the total damage you take will be one thousand seven hundred points – more than your current total."

"That's exactly what I was waiting for," Junsei said with a smirk, "because now that there are four angels in my graveyard, I was certain that I could counter your facedown card, no matter what. Activate counter trap, Light of Judgment! I can negate one opposing card effect and destroy it, and the cost to activate this counter trap varies with the type of card it negates." Her Duel Disk whirred briefly, before Artemis of Harvest and Apollo of Power exited her graveyard slot, and Junsei placed them in the sleeve of her robe. "By removing two angels in my graveyard form play, Light of Judgment negates your trap card and destroys it!"

Junsei smiled and Gnash glared as the Get Away From Me card was struck by a blast of light, destroying it. As this occurred, a third Synthetic Angel token (300/300) appeared on the field, and Wisdom Angel Harvest began to continue its attack. However, before the orange-armored angel could go much further, Junsei held up the final card in her hand. "Because a counter trap has resolved, I can now summon my most powerful monster by its effect!" Immediately, two of her three Synthetic Angels and Wisdom Angel Harvest began to glow, turning into globes of blue light before shooting into the air and crashing into one another. The burst of light that resulted announced the arrival of a large metallic angel, wearing dark armor and bearing a long metal staff tipped with a deep blue jewel. "By sacrificing all monsters on my field at the time of the counter trap's resolution," said Junsei, "I summon Giver of Judgment – Boltenis (2800/1400)!" Upon hearing its name, Boltenis raised its staff, which began glowing brightly at the tip. "When summoned by its own effect, Boltenis destroys a number of cards on the opponent's field equal to the number of monsters sacrificed to summon him. Because I sacrificed three monsters, I'll destroy your facedown card, Spirit Barrier, and Eternal Loner!" Boltenis fired a triple burst of energy from its staff, sending individual beams of light at each of the three named cards.

Suddenly, the Eternal Loner's hair fell aside, allowing him to shoot a fierce glare at Boltenis. Suddenly, the beams of light stopped, as if having crashed against an invisible barrier of some sort. "Activate facedown card," Gnash declared, "Glare of Hatred negates an opponent's card effect that would affect Eternal Loner, and then makes you pay for it." Boltenis shuddered under the Eternal Loner's gaze, and then exploded, like the many angels who had already suffered the same fate in the current duel. "The card is destroyed…and then I target one monster on the opponent's field. Half that monster's attack is dealt as damage to the opponent, and then the monster is treated as having battled Eternal Loner." Junsei gasped as her Synthetic Angel token shuddered violently for a few moments, before exploding as well, releasing a black wave of harmful energy upon its owner (Junsei LP: 850).

The priestess fell to her knees in defeat, having failed to strike her opponent or even wipe his field clear and getting her own monsters destroyed in the process. Her only solace was in the fact that a Synthetic Angel token (300/300) now floated in front of her again. "Glare of Hatred is a counter trap…" she realized, "so a token is summoned to my field…" She trailed off, suddenly realizing that her eyes were locked with Gnash's. There was that same look in his eyes…wrath, interspersed with…and suddenly she knew what it was. It was the idea that Yuu had related to them all on the first day of classes, the third trait of a powerful duelist, the factor that only Gnash had been able to name when questioned about it. _'Will…'_

"Doesn't matter much," Gnash stated, snapping Junsei out of her thoughts, and it took her a moment to realize he was commenting on her announcement of the arrival of her Synthetic Angel. He drew card, before pointing a finger towards her, "Eternal Loner attacks the token." A hand found the token's throat, and this was soon followed by a crunching noise as the Eternal Loner's grip tightened, crushing the angel's throat mercilessly. Gnash ended his turn with a nod, even as Junsei cried out in pain when black energy once again swept up around her (Junsei LP: 350).

"I draw," Junsei murmured quietly, pulling the card slowly from her deck before flipping it around. Her eyes widened in panic as looked at the card. _'No!'_ she mentally cried out, _'I drew Reiyad of Relief (1400/1500)…its effect would be useful if I had a counter trap available, but it's completely useless in this situation…and now there's nothing I can do! If I summon or set Reiyad, he'll just attack it, and Eternal Loner's effect will finish me off…and if I don't, Eternal Loner can just attack me directly! It's all over…despite my best efforts, I'm going to lose…'_ She cast her head down in despair…but was prompted to look up when several blades of grass were crushed under a foot that landed just in front of her.

Gnash stared down with his sharp blood-red eyes at Junsei as she hesitantly looked up at him with her own blue ones. "You had enough yet?" he asked, his tone of voice not as harsh as it usually was. When the only response he got was a gulp, Gnash sighed, and crouched down, bringing himself level with Junsei. "If there's one thing I can't stand," he said calmly, "it's seeing a lady scared to death. I may have a negative attitude in a lot of ways…broody, easy to piss off, and all that…but I'm not cruel, no matter how much you may have thought I was."

The Miko looked at him, disbelief briefly reflecting in her eyes before realization finally sprung forth in them. "This…" she said quietly, "isn't a trick…is it?"

"Took you long enough to accept it," Gnash said with a snort. He shuffled about a few moments, bringing himself into a position sitting beside Junsei rather than in front of her. "So are you going to stop trying to 'purify' me? It's beginning to get aggravating." Junsei fell into a sitting position, crossing her legs as she did so and also shooting him a glance as she wondered how Gnash would act if he was aggravated, considering his behavior in the past several minutes was apparently the way he acted when he was not.

"Given that you offered me this chance to talk things out, when I never gave it to you…" Junsei considered, "as well as the fact that I've been wrong about this sort of thing in the past, I suppose it is in fact quite likely that I was incorrect to assume the worst of you. Though I must ask…if there is nothing inhuman about you, why do you appear as you do, and act as you do? You have a number of traits that I believe are quite unique for a person."

"I guess you just haven't been exposed to people like me very much," Gnash stated simply and bluntly.

"Then, I suppose I should ask…" Junsei began, "why are you the way you are? Why do you call yourself such a sharp name, and dress so strangely?" Gnash stared at her for a moment with a somewhat bemused look on his face, before his eyes trailed down to her Miko garb. Junsei cleared her throat, and explained, "I was raised by Shinto priestesses in the Miyazaki shrine. Forgive me for having picked up on their habits. Now what is your explanation?"

Gnash looked away, accepting her explanation, and a distant look fell over his face. "I was born Rudy Jameson, the name my parents bestowed upon me," he stated, "but some time ago, I grew discontent with the person I had been brought up as. So I gave up my name and the identity I had been assigned, and created my own. Unfortunately…for my own reasons, I realized I couldn't separate myself from my family completely. Therefore, on all my personal records, I'm still Rudy Jameson, as much as I despise the fact."

"I see…" Junsei murmured, pursing her lips in thought. "But then…why are you so…dark?"

Glancing at her in displeasure, Gnash let out a frustrated sigh. _'Damn…'_ he thought, _'I really hate doing crap look like this.'_ He turned away, raising his head to take a deep breath and closing his eyes before he began to speak again. "Look…just because I look a certain way, and act a way that you find abnormal, doesn't mean I'm any less of a person. In all honesty…" he opened his eyes slightly to glance at her out of the corner of his eye, "I personally think this whole priestess thing you're trying to do is insane, but I'm not the one trying to purify you…or anti-purify you…whatever. My point is, I am the way I am because I choose to be, and I just want to be recognized as the person I want to be… Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"

The Miko looked at him with wide eyes for a few moments that seemed to last much longer than they truly did (a rare case for a space of time during the weekend). "…I do," she said, finally, smiling a small smile, "and now I've finally met someone else who understands, as well. The priestesses questioned my decision to leave the temple, but…it just wasn't quite the life for me. I couldn't stay there, where excitement and adventure were so scarce. I suppose they were right when they said I was always too passionate and headstrong, but that's just the way I've always been, the way I always will be. So some time after I was introduced to Duel Monsters, and I became interested in the game, I decided to apply for entrance here, to the academy."

"Hm," Gnash voiced, a tone of understanding lacing his wordless comment, "I know what you mean. I came to Duelist Academy because I couldn't stand it in my home anymore, and because dueling seems to be the only thing I can enjoy doing at all nowadays. I guess it's a good place for odd ones like us."

"I see…" Junsei murmured, as Gnash turned to look at her. Junsei smiled up at him, a bit more brightly this time, and said, "Perhaps, despite all our characteristics pointing to the contrary…we aren't so different after all, Gnash-san." She glanced at the holograms still present on the field, then placed her right hand on top of her deck. "I surrender," Junsei said, the images fading as she did so, "I've doubtlessly lost this duel, and perhaps it's a good thing I did (Junsei LP: Forfeit)."

Both duelists stood up then, and Gnash blinked once before opening his mouth again to speak. "I've learned something from all this. Crazy religious zealots can be pretty nice people once you get to know them," he turned to look down at Junsei, and there was an odd twinkle in his red eye as he continued, "not that I'm going to continue testing that theory…"

Junsei raised an eyebrow, a look of some amusement crossing her face. "There are a couple more matters I'd like to ask you about, Gnash-san," she said, "I saw you speaking with Sayuri earlier today…Would you tell me why you spoke with her in private? Before, when I thought you were…weren't yourself, I assumed you had been threatening her. Now that I know that wasn't the case, I'm quite curious…"

"I can't tell you," Gnash replied crisply, "Sorry, but it's a very private matter. Sayuri would not appreciate it if I said anything more on it. As it is, I regret the fact that you even knew we were talking. Does Sayuri know you saw us?"

The priestess nodded, now looking slightly embarrassed. "I confronted her about it immediately after your conversation ended and you were out of sight," she said, "she seemed surprised and, at the time, a bit frightened…but now that I think about it, nothing she said actually indicated that anything negative had transpired. Perhaps I was not thinking clearly…" A few moments passed, with Sayuri simply standing, looking a bit shamed. Soon, however, she realized she had one more question to ask. "Oh! And…well…you see, when I first started seriously believing something was wrong with you- which I now know was a poor assumption for me to make!" she quickly cut herself off, but Gnash did not visibly react to her comment about something being 'wrong' with him. After a few moments, Junsei continued, "It was early this morning, when I saw you in this very clearing, doing something, which…I couldn't quite discern…" Gnash's expression, though generally sour most of the time and thus hard to read, had grown a bit uneasy as Junsei had spoken, and her words grew hesitant as she asked, "Would you…mind explaining to me what you were doing?"

Dead silence reigned for an interminable amount of time, as Gnash stared into the distance and Junsei waited for him to finally register her presence. Eventually, he said, quietly, "I'd rather not." Junsei decided not to press the matter.

"Alright," the priestess almost whispered, before quickly looking about the surrounding area, to avoid looking at Gnash. "I think we should be going," she decided, "perhaps to go and find the others."

Gnash outright snorted. "And hang out with that idiot Jin?" he said, his face contorting into an expression of disgust, "Like hell. He'll probably complain to us for not talking to him for a few hours, the needy Skittle-obsessed freak." The two began to walk away from the clearing, as Gnash continued to rant. "And then he'll tell me all about how my clothes look ugly while he brags about his future career as a male model, the narcissistic twerp."

"Although," Junsei said thoughtfully, her eyes roving over Gnash's well-faded jacket, "one does tend to wonder how your uniform spontaneously gets into such a condition. I swear I saw a spot appear out of nowhere while we were dueling."

Her companion merely shrugged. "I don't know and I don't really care," Gnash answered, "but I swear it's not black magic. But like I told Jin, yellow's not my color. At least the jacket recognizes that…"

Junsei smiled. "Perhaps," she consented, "but until the time comes when you are no longer a member of Ra Yellow, it will _have_ to be your color."

"Screw Kaiba and his need for primary colors," was all Gnash had to say in response. For the moment, that was all that there was to be said between the two, but the silence that followed no longer existed simply because the two had nothing to say to the other. Instead, the two understood, as they newly understood each other, that there was simply nothing the other needed to hear. And each of them respected this.

* * *

Okay, I had a fun time with this chapter. Foreshadowing, inside jokes (Miko from the Miyazaki shrine…hehe…), a good duel, and good interaction between two characters who I happen to really like. All in all, it was worth the extra time I spent writing it. And if I'm right, this should be the second-longest chapter of Part the Clouds to date, only the 13000-word monster that is the first chapter beating it out length-wise.

_The weekend at Duelist Academy continues, as the girls of Izumi's room encounter the problem that is teenage boys with hormones. However, Sayuri surprisingly voices her displeasure with this situation more forcefully than anyone, and ends up angering the wrong person… How will she handle her first challenge at Duelist Academy?_

_Next Time: No Means No! Sayuri's Rage_


	7. No Means No! Sayuri's Rage

Holy crap it's been nearly two months since the last chapter! Well, I don't really know what to say…I've been lazy, and uninspired. For a while I seriously think I lost interest completely in the story. I began to see it as a task rather than something enjoyable, which is the whole reason I write stuff like this in the first place. But after finding a bit of catchy music that made me think of my characters, and taking a different look at how to write Sayuri's part in this chapter, combined with a very special event that took place yesterday, I managed to buckle down and get writing with renewed vigor. I hope, and truthfully believe, that I'll be able to stick to my writing and enjoy it like I did a few months ago when I went on my chapter-a-week streak for a little while.

In other news, today's chapter is dedicated to Time Mage, who turned twenty years old yesterday! Congratulations, man, and good luck on your Mission, though I hope to be able to post again before you leave.

**Part the Clouds  
****Chapter Seven: No Means No! Sayuri's Rage**

Some twenty hours following Gnash's duel with Junsei, the Osiris Red girl and secret Miko walked down one of the various paths that ran through the academy grounds, accompanied by her two roommates. Izumi was talking animatedly, as usual, while Junsei looked nonplussed, as usual, and Sayuri smiled, nodding every now and then in agreement. "Man, I'm glad we planned something to do with the guys today," Izumi commented, as she traded a step for a half-skip every few paces, "Without classes on the weekend, it's actually been kind of boring around here. I guess it'll be a little while before other students start spending their free time dueling… Ugh, I feel so impatient! I want to beat some people so I can get to face students from higher dorms. I'll bet it would be really fun to compete with them!"

"Hm…" Junsei murmured thoughtfully, "That's assuming you'd be capable of 'competing' with those students…" Images flashed through her mind of the previous day's events…her plans being foiled at every turn…her angels falling before her, one by one…her ace card being rendered useless… "I think you'd be disappointed to find that those in the higher dorms are simply at a level out of our reach."

Izumi rolled her eyes and waved her hand dismissively. "You're being too negative, Nisou," she said, before suddenly striking a dramatic pose, "Just because we're of a different color uniform doesn't mean we're weaker as duelists!"

"…Izumi…" Junsei began, wearing a deadpan expression, "we're of a different color uniform _because_ the teachers found us to be weaker as duelists." Izumi was silent for a few second upon hearing this, before letting out an embarrassed chuckle.

"Well then…" Izumi recovered admirably, and smiled confidently once more, "we'll just have to prove them wrong, won't we? I'm ready to take on any challenge and show everyone how strong I am!"

"Ha! That's rich!" responded an arrogant voice, and Izumi, Junsei, and Sayuri found themselves turning in surprise to look at a group of three Obelisk Blue students, dressed in predominantly white uniforms. The tallest, a black-haired teen with a fierce grin, stepped forward and continued speaking. "Little Dropout Girl thinks she can hang with the real students? Now that's a good joke."

"Eh, go easy on 'em, Ichiro," one of his comrades spoke, slowly coming forward. "They're fresh, only been here a week. They'll learn their place at the bottom of the barrel soon enough, and stop being so annoyingly confident."

"Oh, come on, Jiro," Ichiro replied, smirking, "you really want them to get their hopes up so they can be even more disappointed later? Nah, it's best to bring 'em down early, so they'll recover more quickly, and act like the good little Reds they should be."

Izumi looked positively indignant at being talked about in such a condescending manner, and stepped angrily towards the lead Blue before jabbing a finger in Ichiro's chest. "Listen, you!" she demanded, glaring up angrily into the taller boy's face, "I may be an Osiris Red, but there's no way that means I can't kick butt in a duel. So wipe that smirk off your face or I'll wipe it off for you!"

The challenge prompted a chuckle from Ichiro, who continued to grin as if this were all some big joke. Then, unexpectedly, he laid a hand on Izumi's shoulder, and leaned in towards her, a strange glimmer in his eyes. "You know," he said smoothly, "you look pretty cute when you get angry… What say you and me-?"

An angry blush swarmed up on Izumi's face, and in a rare gesture of disgust, the girl slapped away the hand that had fallen on her shoulder. Junsei stepped forward to stand alongside her, and forcefully shoved Ichiro away. "I believe we've heard quite enough from you," she said firmly, "take your business elsewhere."

"Hey now, don't get so snippy, little one," Jiro replied, coming forward as well, "just because you lack your friend's assets and aren't getting as much attention, there's no need to get so jealous." Junsei looked absolutely infuriated, but couldn't seem to find the sense to express this in words.

Ichiro let out a laugh, and slapped his companion on the back. "You girls are a riot!" he shouted, his shoulders still heaving from suppressed laughter. "We're giving you the chance to spend some time with the cream of the crop, and you're throwing the offer back in our faces? How crazy can you get…? But hey, the offer's still on the table, I'm sure my buddies and I can look past this little display of contempt, right Jiro? Right… And how about you, Saburo?"

The third Obelisk Blue, who had remained silent to this point, looked up at Ichiro, then turned to look at Sayuri, who was looking on at the unfolding events with wide eyes. After a moment, Saburo pointed at her, and said, "I like the nervous-looking one…" As the subject of his gaze jerked in surprise, he grinned hungrily, strangely pleased by her discomfort.

"See?" Ichiro seemed determined to make his pitch, "We _like_ you girls, we're giving you a chance to hang out with some winners. Now let's just make up, act nice, all that. I personally think the best way to express good will between our two parties would be if you gave Saburo a quick peck and-"

The tall student stopped himself mid-sentence, as a crack and scream of pain simultaneously sounded out behind him. Ichiro and Jiro whirled about in shock, as Saburo collapsed to the ground, clutching his face. Sayuri stood over him, a bit of blood dripping from the knuckles of her clenched fist. "Mah dose!" Saburo screamed in agony, "Psee broh mah dose!" Then he yelped in fear as Sayuri jumped onto his chest and began pummeling him angrily, with such fervor that for a few seconds everyone else was too shocked to take action.

Soon, however, Ichiro and Jiro leapt forward, attempting to pull the suddenly rage-filled girl from their companion, who continued to yell in terror. This brought Izumi and Junsei to action, and the two leapt into the fray as well, each trying to pull one of the two Obelisk Blues away from their friend. Yells, curses, grunts of pain, and the occasional smack of fist against flesh filled the air.

"ENOUGH!" A new voice, filled with anger and command, brought an immediate cease to the scuffle, and prompted five pairs of eyes and one unmatched set (one eye clear, the other blackened) to dart in the same direction. There stood another Obelisk Blue, but dressed far more uniquely than the trio tangled in an unceremonious pile with Izumi, Sayuri, and Junsei. He wore a long white coat with dark blue lines forming intricate patterns about its surface. The coat was form-fitting at the torso, but billowed out from the waist down, covering most of his legs to his ankles. The collar was high at the sides and back of his head, reaching ear-level. "Stop this childish behavior!" the newcomer demanded, "Get off of each other this instant!" Coming to their senses, the six gradually complied; Izumi, Junsei, Ichiro, and Jiro stood up and moved away from each other, before Sayuri released Saburo after a few seconds and the two went to their respective groups.

As soon as they had separated, the newcomer marched to the group of Obelisks and began to browbeat them. "You're a bunch of disgraceful idiots!" he barked, and all three winced and bent slightly. Even Ichiro, who was about the same height as the other student, seemed small in comparison. "How can you besmirch the reputation of your dorm by sinking to such barbaric behavior!? If it were in my power I'd have every one of you demoted immediately!"

"They started it…" Ichiro muttered pathetically, gesturing to the three Osiris Red girls, who were watching in stupefied fascination.

"Yes!" came the infuriated response, and immediately Ichiro regretted having spoken up, "I'm sure three first-year Osiris Red students a combined meter shorter and at least a hundred pounds lighter than you three decided they were going to pick on a bunch of second-year Obelisk Blues and show them their place! Even if one of them threw the first punch, it was your idiocy that caused this, so it's your fault you morons!"

"Kyo," Jiro spoke up, looking ashamed and not a little frightened, but determined to defend himself and his companions, "we were just trying to-"

"Trying to what?" Kyo cut him off, " 'Pick up some chicks'? Like that makes it better? I've seen you try to do that before, morons, it's like watching a rhinoceros try to open a window. Cavemen would have more success trying to woo women!" He spat at their feet in disgust, and turned his back on them before walking towards the three girls who were watching with surprised faces. As he approached, the three were able to get a better look at his features. He was nearly six feet in height, and had an oddly handsome face despite the barely-suppressed anger that darkened it. His eyes were pearl-white, and his golden, slicked-back hair glinted in the sunlight that filtered through the branches overhead. Kyo bowed stiffly, as if it were his obligation more than his wish, and said, "On behalf of my entire dorm, I apologize for the behavior of these three. Please forgive their inexcusable actions, and rest assured that I will do everything in my power to assure that such an incident as this never occurs again." Then he straightened, and turned back to Ichiro, Jiro, and Saburo, before saying, "Get back to the dorm, you fools, before I have to call Professor Jougo on your worthless hides!" Grumbling, the three turned, and, with Kyo following, set off.

"Hey, wait a minute!" Sayuri suddenly called after them, prompting all four to pause. "I'm not finished with you three!" she exclaimed, raising a fist, "Come back here so I can close your other eye, creep!" Saburo gulped, and backed away, as Sayuri took several steps forward, "Come on, you filthy cowards!" Izumi and Junsei could only gape in shock at their roommate; at what point had the silent, stuttering Sayuri become so straightforward and angry?

Kyo sighed exasperatedly and turned to face Sayuri, directing a pointed glare at her to match the girl's angry gaze. "There will be no more fighting today," he declared, "not on my watch. You shall part ways peacefully.

"If you won't let us fight, then I'll settle for kicking your asses in dueling!" Sayuri yelled, her Duel Disk whirring into action. "Come on! I'll beat some sense into you! Hell, I'll start with you, you arrogant jackass!" (Sayuri LP: 4000)

The challenge prompted a snicker from one of the three Blues standing beyond Kyo, but he silenced this with a jerk of his head towards them. "Challenging me to a duel is a pitiful and pointless gesture," he answered Sayuri, turning back towards her. "You are angry and your judgment is clouded. If you had your senses about you, you would realize that taking this action is foolish. Do not attempt to follow through with this, you will simply end up embarrassed and disappointed."

"If you're so sure about that," Sayuri responded with a scowl, "then you've got nothing to worry about, so come and prove it! That is, unless you're just scared and you're trying to come up with an excuse so you don't have to look pathetic in front of your fellow Blues, you chicken!"

Kyo stared at her for a few moments in silence, then sighed in resignation. "Very well," he declared, activating his own Duel Disk, "I will accept your challenge, if only because I understand that you cannot allow yourself to accept any other option." (Kyo LP: 4000)

"What could she be thinking?" Junsei wondered aloud, as both duelists drew five cards from their decks, "Against a student from Obelisk Blue, not to mention one with a full year of experience at the academy…she can't stand a chance."

"Heh, we'll see!" Izumi responded with a smile, her eyes focusing intently on the two, "Sayuri may be acting weird, but I definitely don't care if that's what it takes to get her to face an Obelisk Blue!"

"I'll go first!" Sayuri declared, snapping a sixth card from her deck, "And I'll start by summoning Etoile Cyber (1200/1600) in attack mode!" At her words, a brown-haired, pale-skinned woman wearing a red leotard appeared on the field, entering with a twirl. "Then I'll set two cards behind her, and end my turn," Sayuri looked up with a glare in Kyo's direction, and pointed a finger towards him, "I'm not going to back down in the face of these insults…those idiots have tainted both my name and my family's, and you're all going to pay the price for it!"

"…I draw," was Kyo's only response, apparently not caring about Sayuri's reasoning for her behavior. "I discard a card from my hand to activate Dark Core," two cards slipped from his hand, and a black orb of energy materialized in front of Sayuri's Etoile Cyber. The monster shrieked, before she was suddenly sucked into the sphere, which dispersed immediately afterwards. "One face-up monster on the field is removed from play." He did not fail to notice Sayuri's startled reaction, as the girl's eyes widened briefly. "If your defense is so reliant on your monster remaining in play," he stated, "you have a long ways to go before you can hope to even challenge the least of my efforts." He quickly selected a third card from his hand to play, and immediately two cards spat from his Duel Disk, which he deftly caught before flipping them around for Sayuri to view. "I activate Dragon Knight's Arrival, which allows me to add one Dark Blade and one Union monster with 'Dark Blade' in its effect text from my deck to my hand. I'll then summon Dark Blade (1800/1500)." A tall figure, completely covered in black, plated armor, stepped onto his field, drawing a pair of curved swords as his red cape flared out behind him.

"Dark Blade…" Izumi said aloud, "that's one of the first cards released to support the Union monster sub-type. I knew a rare card every now and then popped up specifically to support it in the years following its release, but I've never heard of _that_ card before."

"I now activate Dragon Knight's Mount," continued Kyo, and suddenly a green-scaled dragon the size of a bull appeared with a roar. "This card can be activated when Dark Blade is on the field, and it allows me to summon one Union of Dark Blade, such as Acid-Green Dragon (800/700), from my hand. Afterwards, while Dragon Knight's Mount is in the graveyard, I can activate its effect whenever Dark Blade is summoned to my field." He moved on to his next card without pause, making it obvious that he had practiced the execution of his strategy to a great extent. "I play Dragon Draw, which allows me to draw two cards if a dragon is on my field," after slipping the two cards from his deck and looking over them, Kyo pointed a finger at each of his monsters, and immediately the Dark Blade leapt in the air, landing astride the Acid-Green Dragon's back. "I now conduct a union between Acid-Green Dragon to Dark Blade, increasing his attack and defense by five hundred (2300/2000)! Now, attack her life points directly!" The Dark Blade immediately spurred his draconic mount into action, shouting out and pointing a sword at Sayuri. The green dragon complied immediately, belching out a burst of green fire that forced the girl to cover her head with her arms as it passed over her (Sayuri LP: 1700).

Sayuri grimaced and removed her arms from her head so that she could shoot a glare at Kyo. "Is that all you've got?" she challenged.

"It's not over," her opponent responded simply, "when the monster equipped with Acid-Green Dragon battles and succeeds in either dealing damage to your life points or destroying an opposing monster, one card is randomly discarded from your hand." Sayuri gasped as the Dark Blade suddenly leapt from the dragon's back, and swung with one of his blades, tearing one of the three cards in her hand away. "I'll set one card facedown and end my turn," Kyo concluded.

Biting her lip, Sayuri drew to begin her turn, but was distracted by the sound of approaching footsteps. Looking to her left, she saw three Ra Yellow students and a single Osiris Red step into a view. In the chaos that had occurred over the past several minutes, she and her roommates had understandably forgotten about the meeting that they had initially set out for. Takashi, Gnash, Jin, and Naoki looked between Sayuri, Kyo, Izumi and Junsei, and the three Obelisk Blue students for a few seconds, before Jin broke the silence. "Damn, but that is an AWESOME uniform!" he declared, jerking a finger at Kyo. "Did you design it yourself? It looks great!"

Takashi sighed, and he and Naoki each took a hold of one of Jin's arms before pulling him towards Izumi and Junsei. Gnash stayed behind to exchange a brief look with Sayuri, before he turned to follow. "What happened?" Takashi asked of Izumi, as their two groups joined up.

"I'm not entirely sure," Izumi responded, putting a finger to her lip, "Those guys over there started hitting on us, and Sayuri got really angry and started beating one of them up for some reason. Then Kyo stepped in and broke it up, but she was still mad, so she challenged him to a duel…"

"It's a matter of pride," Gnash supplied with a level tone that indicated he understood the situation. "Sayuri's the kind of person who cares about personal image and identity. To be seen in a way one doesn't want to be seen, for some, is the worst thing one can experience." Junsei turned to look up at him, her attention caught by his words, and she looked curious for a few moments, but he refused to say more.

"In any case," Naoki finally spoke up as well, "I don't think this is going to end well for her."

"…You too, eh?" Sayuri muttered, glancing over her shoulder at Naoki, "You don't think I can do it?! I'll show you…" she turned to glare at Kyo again, "I'll show everyone! I summon Cyber Petite Angel (300/200) to the field!" A small, pink, spherical machine with an angel's halo and wings appeared, and immediately Sayuri reached for her deck. "Once per turn, I can activate Cyber Petite Angel's effect to add Ritual of the Machine Angel from my deck to my hand!" She retrieved the card quickly, making her hand count three cards once more, and crossed her arms across her chest confidently. "I'll end my turn with that, so just come and get me if you can!"

Kyo drew swiftly, barely glancing at the card before pointing a finger at his opponent. "Dark Blade attacks Cyber Petite Angel!" Immediately, the knight-burdened dragon let out another breath of green fire, which threatened to quickly engulf the small mechanical angel.

"It's not going to be that easy!" Sayuri vowed, "Activate facedown card, Deux Passe!" Suddenly the Cyber Petite Angel spread its wings and flew over the trail of fire, which continued unimpeded on its path towards Sayuri. "Our monsters will now attack directly rather than facing each other in battle!"

"Is this some last act of defiance?" Kyo questioned, as the spherical angel flew towards him, "Dealing a meager amount of damage to my life points before going down yourself? What a pointless gesture…"

Sayuri smirked as a silver barrier swept up in front of her, and the green flames splashed harmlessly against it. "You're mistaken in thinking I'm letting myself lose this duel," she replied smartly, and Kyo's eyes widened as suddenly the Cyber Petite Angel struck him across the chin (Kyo LP: 3700). "My other trap card is Cyber Barrier," she declared, pointing at the card that had tipped up in front of her, "It negates one attack if a warrior or angel with 'Cyber' is on my field. After resolution, I can draw one card, which I'll do now." She grinned and drew a card, adding a fourth to her hand.

Kyo frowned, and slid a card into his Duel Disk. "I set one card facedown," he stated, "that will end my turn. Do not think that dealing such a minor amount of damage means anything: I assure you, it will not happen again, and you shall fall."

"Ha!" Sayuri spat back, punching the air in his direction with a fist, "I'll tell you exactly what this past move means: If I can stop your attack, it means you're not unstoppable; if I can get to your life points, it means you're not invincible." She held up two fingers, and grinned cockily, "And with those two bits of knowledge, I know I can beat you! And now, it's my turn, so get ready for an ass-kicking!" She fiercely drew to start her turn, and chuckled a bit as she slapped a card onto her Duel Disk, causing a pink-haired ballerina to appear next to the Cyber Petite Angel. "I summon Cyber Tutu (1000/800), and since the only monster on your field is stronger than her, she can attack directly!" The ballerina giggled, and leapt gracefully through the air, pirouetting past the Dark Blade and his dragon mount, before landing and spinning to kick at Kyo.

"That's not going to happen," the golden-haired Obelisk Blue stated, and suddenly the Cyber Tutu froze up, having been struck across the back by a pair of swords. The Dark Blade stepped back as she fell, and then faded into nothingness. "My trap card, Dark Blade Strike, can destroy one monster if Dark Blade is on the field," Kyo explained simply, "As I said before, you won't strike me again in this duel."

Sayuri frowned, and slid a card into her Duel Disk, before repositioning another that was already occupying it. "I set one card facedown, and move Cyber Petite Angel to defense mode. That ends my turn."

"My turn," Kyo declared, drawing. After a brief moment, he placed the card on his Duel Disk, and a red-scaled dragon, just slightly smaller than the green one, appeared on his field. "I summon Blood-Red Dragon (600/900)," he declared, as suddenly the Dark Blade leapt up from the Acid-Green Dragon's back and landed instead on the new, red one's. "I now to choose to remove Acid-Green Dragon from Dark Blade and summon it in attack mode (800/700), then equip him with Blood-Red Dragon. This grants him a three hundred-point boost in attack and defense strength, rather than five hundred (2100/1800). However, with Blood-Red Dragon equipped, Dark Blade will deal the attack points of any monster he destroys in battle as damage to your life points." The Dark Blade swung a sword in Sayuri's direction, and without need for Kyo's command the Blood-Red Dragon let out a breath of pure red fire, which scorched the air as it careened towards Sayuri's Cyber Petite Angel.

"It's time I paid you back for destroying Cyber Tutu!" Sayuri suddenly exclaimed, and her single set card flipped up, "Like Cyber Barrier, my trap card Cyber Dance can only be activated if an angel or warrior with 'Cyber' in its title is on my field. One attacking monster is destroyed, and another of my Cyber monsters can be summoned straight from my deck." The Cyber Petite Angel began flitting about in the air happily, and all at once the red dragon exploded, throwing the Dark Blade into the air…but the black-armored knight was merely stunned, not beaten, drawing his twin swords and cutting the spherical angel in half before landing in a crouch on the ground. "What the-?"

"The effect of Blood-Red Dragon," declared Kyo, "causes it to be destroyed whenever the equipped monster would be destroyed. Because Cyber Dance does not negate an attack, but merely destroys the attacking monster, Dark Blade (1800/1500) was able to continue his assault, destroying Cyber Petite Angel."

Sayuri scowled, but pulled a card from her deck without hesitation and played it. "I summon Cyber Gymnast (800/1800) in defense mode from my deck," she declared, and at once a muscular, white-haired woman took the place of her Cyber Petite Angel.

"Your defenses are at their limit," Kyo declared, looking serious rather than arrogant, "Already you've over-achieved in this duel by lasting this long when you should have lost already due to the mistakes you've made. I end my turn for now, but I promise I'll end this soon."

"Wait…" Izumi suddenly and unexpectedly murmured before Sayuri could start her turn, her eyes squinting as she attempted to mentally process something. A few moments later, she continued speaking, "That strategy…that name…I've heard of you!" Kyo tilted his head slightly to look at her, the older student not looking surprised in the least to hear this. "You're Kyo Tatsuroku, the Dragon Knight of Duelist Academy! I read about you in the 'Upcoming Stars' edition of Duelists Illustrated a few months ago!"

"You heard about me from a magazine?" Kyo quirked an eyebrow at this, before a thoughtful look fell over his face. "Hm…well, if people are choosing to take interest in me, they're welcome to…it'd be nice if I were informed about it, though…" His white eyes regained focus, and he redirected his gaze at Sayuri again. "It's true, I'm Kyo Tatsuroku, dubbed 'The Dragon Knight' by the students and staff of Duelist Academy ...and the probable reason I've been named in that magazine is, simply put, I've been the second-ranked duelist in the school since the end of the last school year."

Sayuri's mouth fell open in shock, and fear began to creep into her soul. "Second…ranked…" she mumbled, hesitantly, before her head fell forward, and her shoulders slumped. Her anger was momentarily forgotten.

"There is no point to continuing this," Kyo stated, his eyebrows furrowing as he looked down upon Sayuri. "I'm the best student in the school save for one…and that one is most certainly not you, little nothing," his lips curled into a scowl as he gazed upon her, suddenly looking full of contempt, and he folded his arms across his chest, "A first-year Osiris Red…you're entirely out of your league, a total waste of my time and attention. Now that you fully know who I am, maybe you'll realize that as well, and just leave before I step on what dignity remains within you. There are stronger duelists in this school, first-year Obelisk Blues that have already proven themselves and whom I wish to face so that I can test my skills against worthy opponents."

"Oh, shut up!" Sayuri yelled, the fury creeping back into her voice. "You don't think I'm worth your time…worth your attention? Fine then…I'll show just how worthy I am…Before, I was just going to beat you, and move on to those three asswipes…but now, I'm going to make sure to completely kick your ass! Draw!" A smirk appeared on her face as she looked at her drawn card, but first she selected another from her hand and slipped it into her graveyard. "I activate Cyber Gymnast's effect, discarding one card from my hand to destroy one monster on the field with higher attack power than her own!" Sayuri's monster immediately somersaulted into the air, and launched a kick at Dark Blade, sending the warrior crashing onto his back on the ground, before spontaneously and inexplicably exploding. Kyo frowned at seeing his key monster destroyed, but said nothing as Sayuri continued. "Then I'll play my drawn card, Invisible Spirits, which summons two monsters from my graveyard to the field, although they lose their effects, the ability to attack and defend, and I can't use them for a tribute summon." She grinned as slightly transparent forms resembling her Cyber Petite Angel (300/200) and Cyber Tutu (1000/800) came into play, and immediately threw a third card into her Duel Disk. "But even though they can't be sacrificed that way, I can still offer them up to use other cards. So now I'll play Ritual of the Machine Angel, and offer up all three of my monsters!" She quickly slid all three monster cards from her Duel Disk, replacing them with the single remaining, blue-bordered card in her hand. "I summon Cyber Angel Juroujin (2400/1300)!" In a flash of light, a tall, elegant-looking woman appeared. She wore a mask adorned with the antlers of a deer, and in her left hand she wielded a staff while in her right she held a fan.

"So you are capable of summoning the Cyber Angels after all," Kyo observed, looking up at the woman, "I was beginning to think that all the cards related to them were just for show and you couldn't actually use them."

"Why won't you shut up!?" Sayuri angrily demanded, clenching both fists and grinding her teeth together. "Idiot…I'm about to completely reverse the life point situation in this duel, just watch! Juroujin is known as the Daoist god of longevity, and that lore transcends into the game by my monster increasing my life points by an amount equal to the attack points of one monster on the field when she is summoned. Of course she's the strongest monster on the field right now, so I'll just have her target herself for the effect." Juroujin turned on her heel, and swept her fan back and forth a few times, sending a glittering powder blowing towards Sayuri, who took a deep breath as her life points rose (Sayuri LP: 4100). She grinned confidently, and pointed at the Acid-Green Dragon, which stood on its haunches just in front of Kyo. "And now Juroujin will attack your monster, dealing a big blow to your life points!"

Juroujin darted across the field, raising her staff to strike the dragon. However, before she could begin to bring the rod down, a pair of men, one wearing a black suit and the other a white one, suddenly popped up between the Cyber Angel and her target, turned to each other, and shook hands. "My facedown trap card is Call For Unity," Kyo declared, pointing at the card he had just activated, having set it several turns ago. "This card negates one attack, and then allows me to add one level four or lower Union monster from my deck to my hand."

Sayuri stamped her foot angrily against the ground, then crossed her arms over her chest. "Fine! I can't do anything else, so I'll end my turn, but you can't run much longer, I'm going to take you down in just a few short turns!"

Kyo sneered in response, drawing a card and completely ignoring it as he voiced his response. "You just don't get it," he stated conclusively, "you've had your chance to try and touch me, just harm me a miniscule amount and you _blew it_. When you attacked me I added to my hand the last thing I need to finish you off this turn with minimal effort." Sayuri's eyes widened slightly at this declaration, despite her having been so confident after her success in her last turn.

"I don't understand what Kyo's trying to accomplish," Junsei voiced from the sidelines. "If he believes he's so superior to Sayuri, why is he acting so seriously over this?"

"If I had to guess," Takashi said, raptly observing the second-ranked duelist's actions and speaking distractedly. "I'd say he's trying to prove a point…that Sayuri has a long ways to go, and desperately needs to improve…"

"I activate Revival of the Dark Blade, which summons Dark Blade from my graveyard!" Kyo proclaimed, as once more the black-armored knight rose up before him, drawing his twin swords (1800/1500). "And now the effect of Dragon Knight's Mount activates from my graveyard, so now I'll summon Knight Dragon (2000/1500) from my hand!" Beside the Dark Blade, an orange dragon, larger than each of the previous two that Kyo had summoned, descended. "And once more, I'll equip Dark Blade with a dragon by conducting a union with Knight Dragon!" As the Dark Blade climbed onto the large dragon's back, Sayuri suppressed a gasp, as the warrior's power shot upwards (2700/2400). "A nine hundred-point boost to both attack and defense…" Kyo stated, before suddenly swinging his arm outwards, "But that's not the point! By sacrificing Knight Dragon, I can allow the equipped monster to attack directly this turn!" The orange dragon suddenly shattered into thousands of particles of brilliant white light, which surrounded the Dark Blade in a pulsating aura and lifted him into the air, placing him in a position to dive behind Juroujin and directly strike at Sayuri.

The actions that he had conducted to this point slowly brought a smirk back to Sayuri's face, erasing her unsure expression. "Heh, you had me worried for a second," she admitted, planting her hands on her hips, "but it looks like you're just full of hot air! Even if you equip Dark Blade with Acid-Green Dragon, the most damage you can hope for is two thousand three hundred, which is just about half my current life point count. You were better off having Knight Dragon equipped, then you could've gotten rid of my monster and left me top-decking. Ha! Some second-ranked duelist you are, you don't even understand basic strategy! Maybe after I'm done beating you into the dirt I'll have a crack at the Kaiser!"

"Pay attention you ignorant little fool," Kyo commanded sternly, "and maybe you'll learn something about underestimating your opponents to ridiculous extents. I told you I had everything in place to finish you off now, and I meant it." With that, he held up a card, the last remaining in his hand besides the one he had drawn to start his turn, and placed it on his Duel Disk. Yet another dragon appeared, this the smallest of all so far, but with a pair of extremely wide wings, which cast a large shadow behind the blue-scaled creature. "Sky-Blue Dragon (700/800) is the final mount that will appear in this duel, and now I conduct a union between it and Dark Blade, increasing the knight's attack and defense by four hundred apiece (2200/1900)!" The blue dragon flapped its large wings and took to the sky, hovering just beneath the Dark Blade, who gradually settled into his place on the beast's back. "Now, Dark Blade attacks directly! Blue Flame of the Dragon Knight!" With a jerk of its head and a snap of its jaw, the Dark Blade's latest mount sent forth a blue ball of fire, which left Sayuri tumbling to the ground as it crashed mercilessly against her (Sayuri LP: 1900).

When the dust around her had settled, Sayuri chuckled weakly a bit, and climbed to her feet, still smirking. "Hehe…is that it?" she questioned, "I'm still here, jackass, you-" And that was when the Dark Blade landed directly in front of her, raising his swords to strike the coup de grace. "Wha-?"

Both blades fell, knocking Sayuri flat on her back before she could finish voicing her surprise, and the holograms on the field dimmed and vanished (Sayuri LP: 0). "A monster equipped with Sky-Blue Dragon," Kyo explained, already turning to leave, "can attack twice during the battle phase." He paused in his movement long enough to watch Sayuri try to struggle to her feet, an angry expression still on her face, fighting off one of disappointment. But the Osiris Red girl was exhausted and utterly beaten, and she could not force herself to move anymore; so she fell to the ground once more and did not move, forced to lay prone in her defeat.

Kyo huffed in disapproval and finally turned away as Sayuri's friends rushed to her side, saying in a low voice, "The soul is willing but the flesh is week…And, judging by the choice to challenge me…the mind is weak, as well…"

* * *

Challenges I faced in this chapter were: just plain getting started; making the conversation at the beginning between Izumi, Junsei, and Sayuri; having Ichiro, Jiro, and Saburo (who will probably never show up again, hence their incredibly unoriginal names) show up; and figuring out how to have Sayuri act throughout the duel. Eventually I kind of just trundled through the first few, and I decided that circumstances were appropriate for Sayuri to briefly abandon timidity in favor of being irrationally angry, which I'm still not perfectly happy with, but at least it worked well enough to get through the chapter. Anyways, things really started to pick up after Sayuri broke a guy's nose and Kyo showed up. Kyo is, after all, my second-favorite character in this story, next to Gnash. In the meantime, I'm writing this at 3 in the morning, so I should probably stop rambling.

_Two weeks of classes have now passed at Duelist Academy, and the students have settled into routine life at the school. However, when the students are ranked for the first time since the beginning of the year, a new challenger steps forth to face Takashi. However, this fellow Ra Yellow student proves to be more than a match for the so-far unbeaten student…Will Takashi be able to continue his winning streak?_

_Next time: To Climb Higher Than the Sun_


End file.
